THE
A. H. U. COLQUHOUN

LIBRARY
OF CANADIAN HISTORY

POLITICAL REMINISCENCES OF
SIR CHARLES TUFPER, BART.

SIR CHARLES T UPPER

From a crayon study by Angell, Vancouver, B C., 1913

Frontispiece

Political Reminiscences of
The Right Honourable
Sir Charles Tupper, Bart.,

G.C.M.G., KC.M.G., CR, P.C, M.A.,
D.C.L., Hon. LL.D. Cambridge, Edinburgh,
Acadia and Queen's Universities ; M.D.

transcribed and Edited by the late
W. A. Harbin. With a Biographical
Sketch and an Appendix % % %

V

LONDON

CONSTABLE y COMPANY LTD.
1914

PREFACE

IN the autumn of 1912, Sir Charles Tupper,
who was then residing in Vancouver, B.C.,
was prevailed upon by the late W. A.
Harkin to converse with some continuity on the
subject of his political experiences. Mr. Harkin
had known the aged statesman in former years,
and as a member of the Press Gallery at Ottawa
had reported many of his speeches. In the end,
this conversation broadened out into a series of
interviews, the last of which was given in April,
1913. Mr. Harkin was at the time an active
newspaper man, and his extended reports of
these interviews appeared from time to time in
the " Vancouver Daily Province," with which
journal he was connected. His skill as a prac-
tised writer was exhibited in translating these
necessarily colloquial memories into readable
manuscript. But the printer's proofs of this
" copy 5: had the benefit of revision by Sir
Charles Tupper before their appearance in news-
paper columns. The result may therefore be
taken as authentic and authorized.

Preface

It was the intention of Mr. Harkin to publish
these reminiscences in book form, and he was
preparing them with that end in view at the time
of his sudden and lamented death in September,
1913. To two of his friends has come the task
of carrying out his unfulfilled purpose. These
pages, therefore, are not only a record of political
experiences ; they are also a memorial of the
ability and enterprise which first gave those
reminiscent conversations a tangible shape.

These reconstructions of the past by the only
survivor of that group of distinguished men who
helped to mould the destinies of Canada at the
crucial period of Confederation have, naturally,
a unique interest. This story from living lips
has a quality that is apart from any personal
considerations. It will appeal to the student of
Canadian annals, and to the historian. It will
be valued by the general body of thoughtful
citizens, both in Canada and the Empire at
large. The prominent and patriotic part played
by Sir Charles Tupper amid the portentous
difficulties that surrounded Confederation, and
his effective and far-seeing statesmanship on
that and subsequent occasions, are now ac-
knowledged and admired by all Canadians, irre-
spective of party. It may be hoped that these
records will be an inspiration to those who now
have to build upon the foundations laid by

vi

Preface

others, and upon whose public spirit and recog-
nition of the duties and responsibilities of
citizenship the future welfare of the Dominion
will depend.

Besides compiling from various sources a
biographical sketch of Sir Charles Tupper, the
Editors have, in an appendix to the present
volume, reprinted the Hansard report of one of
his most important speeches in the House of
Commons in Ottawa. This remarkable specimen
of political oratory will afford the reader an
opportunity of judging of the powers of the
veteran statesman when he was in the prime of
life. For comprehensive and detailed grasp of
the matters in hand, for lucid exposition, and
for accumulative force this speech has received
a deserved meed of praise.

BERNARD McEvov,
A. E. GREENWOOD.

VANCOUVER, B.C.
January,

Vll

NOTE

THE Editors have thought it inadvisable to
interfere with the general character of the
following chapters as a republication of articles
written for a daily newspaper. As such they
have a freshness and vitality which will com-
mend them to appreciative readers.

vui

IN MEMORIAM
WILLIAM A. HARKIN

IT seems almost impossible to dissociate
William A. Harkin ("Billy," as he was
affectionately called) from his work. He
was a most accomplished and enthusiastic news-
paper man. After that, though combined with
it, perhaps his most characteristic quality was
the indefinable charm which goes with being a
gentleman. William Harkin was a gentleman
in the truest sense. Breeding was apparent in
him, and the manner that must be born and
cannot be made. He had a sympathetic soul,
and if the natural simplicity of his nature had
derived a certain defensive armour of sophisti-
cation from contact with the world, it needed
but a moment's converse to show that he had
still the heart of a child. He had an extra-
ordinary faculty of being interested in things
and people. Veneration was strong in him ; by
nature and early training he was incapable of
assuming the nil admirari attitude. Perhaps he
* ix

In Memoriam

was a little too ready to admire, where his heart
went, and to place halos on heads that were not
really worthy of them. His mental portrait
gallery contained pictured paladins and Gala-
hads that would scarcely have been recognized by
their subjects or contemporaries. When to this
was added a never-failing and sincere politeness
of address and a finish of manners rarely met
with, it will be seen that as an interviewer for
newspaper purposes he was exceptionally well
furnished. Besides, his knowledge of Canada
and its people and politics was profound and
discerning. He had been behind the scenes, and
was able to estimate the true value of move-
ments and happenings. His duties for the last
few years of his life included the visiting and
conversing with every person of any importance
who came to the Pacific coast of Canada, and he
therefore had a very large acquaintance with
prominent people. He combined with his gracious
and respectful manner towards everybody a
considerable amount of penetrative insight into
human nature. He sometimes recognized the
bearings of a man's projects before they had
begun to make any noise in the commercial
world. He could estimate the importance of
the aristocrat, and the worth of the newly rich.
Nor was he deficient in intellectual capacity or
resources. He was fond of reading a " stiff "

WILLIAM A. HARKINT

From a photograph by Carpenter, Rossland, B.C., 1902

p. x

In Memoriam

book, and of wandering, mentally, among philo-
sophical abstractions. He could grasp the main
lines of the pet theories of the travelling scientist,
and he was at home with the wayworn, sun-
burned prospector just back from a year's toil-
some search in the mountains for precious
minerals. As an emissary of the Press, sent out
to new neighbourhoods to gather facts and im-
pressions, he frequently gave evidence of large
powers of observation and description, and his
reports in this regard are of permanent value.

In the daily newspaper, with its everlasting
search after the news, and its effort to show " the
very age and body of the time, his form and
pressure," Harkin found a sphere exactly suited
to his abilities. An acute observer, he also
possessed a retentive memory.

We were accustomed to see him rush into the
newspaper offices, his finely-cut features suffused
with enthusiasm, and his expressive eyes radiant
with purpose. It was a part of him always to be
neat and careful in his attire — he was never
slipshod. He would pull off his coat, place a few
pages of scattered notes on his desk, and im-
mediately begin hammering away at his type-
writer as if for dear life. Probably not even an
expert could read all that his few pages of
scribbled notes meant to him. But the readable
manuscript that presently went into the com-

xi

In Memoriam

posing-room had upon it the unmistakable mark
of vitality. His whole nervously alert being had
been concentrated on making it a graphic pre-
sentment of his most recent experience.

William A. Harkin was born in Prescott
County, Ontario, about fifty years ago, and his
boyhood and early youth were spent in the town
of Vankleek Hill — just half-way between Mon-
treal and Ottawa. His father was a physician
with a large practice, but he found time to take
a share in public affairs, and was elected by the
county of Prescott to a seat in the Ontario
Legislature. His end was sudden and tragic, for
while addressing the House he dropped dead.

His son, the subject of this memoir, after
completing his education at Vankleek Hill and
at Ottawa, began his career as a journalist in
the latter city, and from that time till the day
of his death lived a busy life. Soon after going
to Ottawa he began to devote himself to what
may be called political journalism, and for a
number of years was a member of the Parlia-
mentary Press gallery.

His work at Ottawa was characterized by
tireless energy, a genius for making friends, and
a wonderful success in obtaining news — chiefly
political news — which made his services of great
value to the newspapers he served. In the
course of his long career as a journalist he was

xii

In Memoriam

associated with many events which have directed
the course of Canadian history during the last
quarter of a century — with such events as the
Kiel Rebellion, and with the leading issues in
federal politics during the closing years of the
premiership of Sir John A. Macdonald, and the
period that immediately followed. It was one
of these events — the Riel Rebellion — that first
took him to Western Canada. He went to the
front as one of the special correspondents of the
" Montreal Daily Star," and his interesting
reports from the field were read with absorbing
interest. He afterwards became city editor of
that newspaper. Later he went to Rossland, B.C.,
and for some years devoted himself to mining
affairs. Returning to journalism, he rejoined the
staff of the " Montreal Star," and eventually
went to the Pacific coast, where he was engaged
in newspaper work on the " Vancouver Daily
Province " until his sudden and lamented death
September 21st, 1913. He died on a Sunday
morning. The end came as the result of a
paralytic stroke early on the previous Friday,
after which he never regained consciousness.
Although he had been unwell for some days, he
had seemed, on the Thursday before, to be
recovering his usual health, and had been out
for a stroll with a friend before returning to his
apartments for the last time. Mr. Harkin was

xiii

In Memoriam

never married. His mortal dust rests in peace
in the Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver.
Many appreciative and sympathetic notices in
the Press both of Eastern and Western Canada
testified to the widespread respect and affection
in which he was held by fellow journalists a ad
by a large section of the general public. The
Editors much regret that the only available
portrait of the author of this book is one that
was taken a dozen years ago. It will, however,
serve to recall to those who knew him, the
expression of his eye, and the general contour
of his well-remembered face.

XIV

CONTENTS

i

INTRODUCTORY

Sir Charles Tupper at Vancouver in 1912 — Retrospective
— Only living " Father of Confederation " — Pen-picture
of Sir Charles at ninety-one — How the Reminiscences
came to be written .......

II

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Ancestors — Grandfather emigrates from Massachusetts to
Nova Scotia — His son, Rev. Charles Tupper, D.D. —
Birth of Sir Charles Tupper — His education at Wolf-
ville, N.S. — Destined by his father for the medical
profession — Goes to Edinburgh University — Begins
practice at Amherst, N.S. — Career as a medical man
— First political speech — Enters provincial politics —
Defeats Hon. Joseph Howe — Foreshadowings of Cana-
dian Confederation — Sir Charles as a vigorous High
Commissioner in London — His last visit to Amherst .

Ill

THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION

Relates reminiscences of Federal Union of Canadian Pro-
vinces— Estimate of Sir John Macdonald and other
notable men of that period — Charlottetown conference
called — Conference at Quebec — Hon. Joseph Howe
converted to the support of a United Dominion — Mis-

XV

Contents

PAGE

sions to England and interviews with statesmen —
Howe's volte face — The battle shifts from Halifax to
London — Controversial work there — Characterization
of the " Fathers of Confederation " — Forming the
First Federal Government — Interview with John
Bright — Stormy session of 1870 — Howe is created
Lieut.-Governor of Nova Scotia — Tupper enters Sir
John's Cabinet as President of the Council, June 21,
1870 — Death of Howe shortly after accepting office as
Lieut.-Governor . ^ . . . . .26

IV

THE TRIP TO FORT GARRY

Dangerous mission in the winter of '69 to interview the
rebel leader Kiel — Demand for return of his daughter's
stolen baggage — Perilous overland journey into hostile
country — Acquisition of North-west Territories and
extinguishment of title vested in Hudson's Bay Co. —
Half-breeds' fears and first rebellion — Encounter with
Indians — Hardships endured by Tupper and Smith
(Lord Strathcona) — Meetings with Riel — The return
journey — Subject bitterly debated in House of Commons
— Government survives the storm . . 53

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Early colonial leaders oppose efforts to change status of
Crown colony — Isolation would have led to absorption
by U.S.A. — Offer of a transcontinental railway — Legis-
lative Council send delegation to Ottawa — Last session
of Legislative Council and acceptance of terms of union
— Terms of union opposed by Liberals at Ottawa —
First General Election after Confederation — Sir John
A. Macdonald's reduced majority — Session of 1873 and
Pacific slander — Sir John A. Macdonald resigns, but
again comes into power in 1878 — Surveys for trans-
continental railway — British Columbia's great destiny 82

xvi

Contents

VI

RAILWAY POLICY

PAGE

Sir Charles Tupper takes folio of Railways and Canals —
Determination of route of transcontinental railway —
Liberal opposition to the scheme led by Edward Blake
— Tapper's proposals for building of railway — Inter-
esting British capital in the scheme — Original Canadian
Pacific Railway syndicate — Vigorous campaigning —
The Railway Bill carried— Sir Charles Tupper's first
official trip of inspection — He goes to London as High
Commissioner — Critical period for Canadian Pacific
Railway — Sir Charles summoned to Ottawa — Proposes
loan of $30,000,000 to Canadian Pacific Railway —
Loan carried and afterwards repaid .... 97

VII

THE "NATIONAL POLICY"

Sir Charles Tupper sponsor of " National Policy " — The
Pacific slander — Details of the Investigation — Inter-
view of Sir Charles with Lord Dufferin — Elections of
1874 — Sir John A. Macdonald's political nadir — Conse-
quences of abrogation of Elgin treaty — Sir Charles in
Opposition goes back to medicine — Following up Mac-
kenzie, the Liberal Premier — Pacific slander charges de-
molished— Advocates radical change in fiscal system —
A five hours' speech — Tupper and Cartwright — Sir John
A. Macdonald returns to power — Success of the National
Policy 120

VIII
INTERESTING DETAILS

Recapitulating memories — Sir Charles offered the leader-
ship in succession — Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper — Sir
Charles Tupper's last campaign — Close of Sir John A.
Macdonald's career — Postal congress in Vienna — The iron
industry — Transpacific service — Fast Atlantic service . 144

xvii

Contents

IX

CONSERVATIVE DEFEAT

PAGE

Session of 1895 and after — The Manitoba school question —
The Mackenzie-Bowell Cabinet — Sir Charles assumes
leadership — Appoints Lord Strathcona High Commis-
sioner— Manitoba Remedial Bill — General Election and
defeat of the Government — Sir Charles sustains first
personal defeat — Lost office, but not power — Urges
Laurier to send South African contingent — Sir Charles
Hibbert Tupper proposes Mr. Borden as Leader of Oppo-
sition— Newfoundland and Canada — Unionists and food
taxes — Unrivalled resources of Canada . . .159

X

EMPIRE CONSOLIDATION

History of the movement — Delegation to England in 1879 —
A proposition submitted to Sir Michael Hicks Beach —
Discussion of the question in 1884 — Toronto branch of
Imperial Federation League — Speech at annual dinner
in 1889 — Correspondence with Sir John A. Macdonald —
Lord Salisbury and Imperial Federation — The Belgian
and German treaties — Speech at Montreal — Conference
of 1897 — Article in " Nineteenth Century " — Treaties
and Canadian commissioners . . . . .170

XI

THE FISHERIES TREATY

Protection of Atlantic coast fisheries — Action of Sir Charles
Tupper in the matter — Interviews Mr. Bayard, American
Secretary of State — Appointed joint plenipotentiary
with Mr. Chamberlain — Advises the latter to seek an
interview with Mr. Bayard— The treaty successfully
arranged — Queen Victoria honours Sir Charles Tupper —
Letter from Lord Salisbury — Strained relations between
Canada and the United States — Important results of the
treaty — A tribute to Sir Charles . . . .189

APPENDIX ......... 199

INDEX 297

xviii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

SIR CHARLES TUPPER (1913) . . Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

WILLIAM A. HARKIN . . x

BIRTHPLACE OF SIR CHARLES TUPPER . .10

HOUSE AT AMHERST, N.S. . . . . 14

SIR CHARLES TUPPER (1877) . . 92

FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM SIR CHARLES TUPPER . .102

SIR CHARLES TUPPER (1898) . . . . 162

xix

POLITICAL REMINISCENCES

OF

SIR CHARLES TUPPER

I" INTRODUCTORY

VANCOUVER, September, 1912.
^T ITTLE did Dr. Tupper dream in 1860,
when advocating with voice and pen
M J the confederation of the scattered pro-
vinces of British North America, that he would
make his home, more than half a century later,
in a city, then unborn, on the shores of the
Pacific.

Now in the evening of his years he is the most
honoured citizen in a young and prosperous
nation conscious of its noble heritage and great
destiny.

History, which is more just and more accu-
rate than that of a former age, has already
given the veteran statesman full credit for the
mighty part he played in one of the most dramatic

Sir Charles Tupper

constitutional struggles of modern times, and
his later achievements in laying broad and deep
the foundations of the young Dominion, and
thus paving the way for a solidarity of sentiment
now crystallizing in the shape of a real and prac-
tical unity of the Mother Country and the rest
of the British Empire. The substantial aid of
Canada, New Zealand, and Australia in the
South African war, the granting of British pre-
ferential trade by the Dominion, New Zealand's
gift of Dreadnoughts, and Premier Borden's
recent mission to London, form in perspective
epoch-making events in which the course of the
movement is plainly discernible.

A grateful people, irrespective of party, now
acknowledges the invaluable services Sir Charles
Tupper rendered to his country, recognizes the
magnitude of the struggle he engaged in almost
single-handed at the outset in overcoming op-
position to confederation in Nova Scotia, and
appreciates at its true worth the self-effacement
he displayed in stepping aside to permit other
men from his native province to enter the
Cabinet after he had won the victory. No such
difficulties had to be overcome in Ontario and
Quebec, because both parties sunk their differ-
ences to bring about the union.

Of the galaxy of far-seeing nation-builders
who moulded the beginning of the memorable

2

Introductory

Confederation, Sir Charles Tupper alone sur-
vives. By general assent the " Father of Canada "
is everywhere honoured as " Canada's Grand
Old Man." Gone are his famous colleagues,
Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir George E. Cartier,
Hon. George Brown, and lesser luminaries who,
each in his humble way, had a share in solving
the numerous problems that endangered the
success of the great political experiment.

Sir Charles at ninety-one is an interesting
psychological study, as much for his present
outlook on life at that advanced age, as on ac-
count of his remarkable achievements. The
oldest living statesman in the world, he reminds
one of a stately and venerable oak which, un-
affected by the storms of earlier years, still
exhibits a wonderful vitality. Unlike men
twenty years his junior, who are living in the
past, and who have lost all concern in every-
thing except their immediate surroundings, Sir
Charles still feels the pulse-beat of the world
day by day.

His mind is as keen and plastic, his memory,
even of recent happenings, as clear as they were
during his early manhood. He is at once a
surprise and a revelation to friends and relatives.
He is a constant reader of the magazines and
newspapers, watching with deep interest the
progress of events at home and abroad.

3

Sir Charles Tupper

Given up by the attending physicians in Eng-
land last winter when suffering from an attack
of bronchitis, Sir Charles recovered only to
receive a severe blow a few months later by the
death of Lady Tupper, his devoted helpmate
for over sixty-six years. To her inspiration he
has ascribed much of the success of his public
career from the day when as a young doctor he
entered the political lists and defeated Hon.
Joseph Howe, Premier and leader of the Liberal
party. Home to Nova Scotia last spring he
accompanied the remains to the place of inter-
ment at Halifax.

Happily the forebodings as to his health were
not realized, and now that he is under the
devoted care of his son, Sir Charles Hibbert
Tupper, and his family, the health of the vener-
able statesman has greatly improved. The breezes
of the Pacific seem to have given him a new lease
of life.

His physical vigour is indicated by the fact
that he is able with assistance to frequently take
short walks in the vicinity of his son's house,
adjacent to Stanley Park. Occasionally he varies
this routine with a motor drive to enjoy the
ocean breezes and survey the magic growth of
Greater Vancouver.

The Tupper residence is the Mecca of scores
of visitors desirous of paying their respect and

4

Introductory

homage to Canada's Grand Old Man. The list
includes many former parliamentary colleagues
of both parties, including members of the admin-
istration now in power at Ottawa. Sir Charles
is partial to old friends, but everybody receives
a cordial welcome.

Visitors return impressed with his remarkable
memory and the brightness of his undimmed
intellect. He discusses with equal facility any
topic that arises during conversation, showing
a partiality for contemporary events, especially
in the field of Dominion or Imperial politics.

Sir Charles does not look his great age. It is
true his shoulders are slightly stooped, but he
now enjoys improved health, giving hope for
the belief that he will live to celebrate his hun-
dredth birthday. His voice is still clear and
resonant, his hearing excellent, and he never
uses glasses except when reading. His com-
plexion has a ruddy freshness that is surprising
in one of his years.

Courage, forcefulness, and tenacity of purpose
are still clearly revealed in those massive fea-
tures, surmounted by a large forehead. The
eyes still flash with something of their old fire
when the subject under discussion is an appeal-
ing one, and there is then also a tightening of
the lines around an unusually strong chin. It is
difficult to realize that sixty years have elapsed

5

Sir Charles Tupper

since he delivered his first political speech. The
former sobriquets applied to him in an earlier
day : " War Horse of Cumberland," and " The
Fighting Doctor," were justly merited.

It was recently my good fortune to renew my
acquaintance with the distinguished statesman
whose eloquent and convincing speeches in the
House of Commons at Ottawa I had often
chronicled from the Press gallery. I found him
the same forceful personality, softened perhaps
a trifle with the passage of the years. At my
request, Sir Charles, now that all the other
actors in the drama have passed away, discussed
with the utmost freedom many of the events of
the struggle that ended in the confederation of
the various provinces. He dwelt on many
phases of the political evolution of the Dominion
after 1867, the building of the Intercolonial and
the Canadian Pacific Railways, his career in
England, his return to Canada, acceptance of
the Premiership and resignation in 1896.

His observations and reminiscences throw an
interesting sidelight on the tremendous difficul-
ties that had to be overcome in the fight for a
broader and more comprehensive form of govern-
ment. Sir Charles also reviewed the Charlotte-
town and Quebec conferences, showing how
narrowly the project escaped destruction ; and
the subsequent meetings in London to prepare

6

Introductory

the final draft of our present Constitution. His
estimate of the framers of Confederation — the
men he knew so intimately — their strength,
weaknesses and foibles, all sympathetically por-
trayed, will possess no little historical import-
ance ; likewise a description of his thrilling
experience in journeying alone in the winter of
1869 to Fort Garry, and his remarkable inter-
view with Louis Kiel, the half-breed leader, and
Father Richot.

Sir Charles also devoted much of his talk to
his great political opponent, Hon. Joseph Howe,
whom he lived to see converted to the cause of
Confederation and serving as a member of the
same Cabinet. Their joint debate at Truro, in
the campaign of 1867, is as famous to-day in
the Maritime provinces as the celebrated duel
between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas on the
slavery question at Springfield, 111., before the
American Civil War.

II

I

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

^HE Tupper family is of Teutonic origin.
One branch of it settled in Sandwich
(England), a second in Amsterdam,
and a third in the Channel Islands. Sir Charles
is a descendant of the Sandwich branch. In
1635 Thomas Tupper emigrated from Sandwich
to Massachusetts, where he, with eight other in-
corporators, founded the town of Sandwich, since
renamed Lynn. Thomas Tupper married the
daughter of Governor Mayhew of Massachusetts,
the governor settling on the young couple an
estate on which they built their home, a house
that was occupied by a member of the Tupper
family for the better part of three centuries.
In 1763 Sir Charles Tupper 's grandfather emi-
grated from Massachusetts to Nova Scotia,
taking possession of Crown lands vacated by
the deported Acadian French, where Sir Charles's
father, the Rev. Charles Tupper, D.D., was born,
and where Sir Charles himself was born on July
2nd, 1821. He is the ninth descendant of a Tupper
in a direct line of whom records can be traced.

8

Biographical Sketch

Perusing the records of the family with a
view to discovering any evidence there may be
that the gifts of Sir Charles are hereditary, we
find that while his ancestors were noteworthy
for sterling character and abounding common
sense, his grandmother emerges from the back-
ground of the past as a woman of extraordinary
talents. Rev. Dr. Saunders, in his interesting
and valuable work " Three Premiers of Nova
Scotia " (Briggs, Toronto), from which many of
these biographical particulars are taken, remarks
that a number of members of the family have
been distinguished for their gifts, and especially
for their aptitude in acquiring languages. Sir
Charles Tupper's father had this talent. Though
his labours as a pastor were hard and incessant,
yet by his phenomenal industry he acquired a
reading knowledge of thirteen languages and a
critical knowledge of some of them. It may
therefore be taken for granted that young
Tupper passed his adolescent and formative
period in an atmosphere of culture, plain living
and high thinking. He had the best possible
opportunities of acquiring a vocabulary which,
while based on a solid Anglo-Saxon foundation,
was enriched from other sources. He had the
inestimable advantage of being a member of a
family whose ideals were high, and in which the
virtues of courage and devotion to duty were
constantly displayed.

Sir Charles Tupper

His father, for one year, was principal of the
grammar school at Amherst, Nova Scotia. Dur-
ing this time he discharged the duties of a
minister of the gospel to the Baptist church at
that place. He had married Mrs. Lowe, a
widow. Three sons were the offspring of the
union, of whom Charles was the youngest. A
very interesting paragraph in the journal of this
worthy and learned man is as follows :—

" Having decided, on mature deliberation to
give my son Charles an education in order that
he might be prepared to enter the medical
profession ; on August 1st, 1837, I sent him to
our educational institution at Wolfville" (Hor-
ton Academy and Acadia College).

Charles Tupper, junior, took the usual course,
and later engaged in advanced studies at this
seat of learning, now celebrated as the Alma
Mater of many well-known Canadians. Sixteen
when he entered its portals, he passed out of
them at the age of nineteen. After some pre-
liminary medical studies with Dr. Harding of
Windsor, Nova Scotia, he left his native land
for Edinburgh in 1840. It is interesting to recall
some outstanding events by way of placing
this date in its proper perspective. On June
20th, 1837, Queen Victoria ascended the throne.
Young Tupper went to his college in Nova Scotia
a few weeks afterwards. In the same year the

10

Biographical Sketch

first railway was opened in England. There were
no railways anywhere else. In 1840, the year
that Tupper went to Edinburgh, the Queen
married Prince Albert. King Edward VII was not
born until a year later. As for Canada, pathless
forests were the rule and " modern improve-
ments " the exception. It took several days to
get from Montreal to Toronto — the latter was
then called York, and, familiarly, " Muddy
York." But in the older settled Maritime
Provinces, of which Nova Scotia was one,
prosperous farms dotted the landscape, the
culture of the apple had made a good begin-
ning, timber had proved its value, and maple
sugar, and potash — the product of forest trees
burned by the farmers — were eagerly utilized
products. The Maritime Provinces afforded an
environment for the development of strong
individual character. The period was favour-
able. Time could not have provided a better
cradle for the embryo statesman who was to
help to mould the future of Canada. He learned
to know his native province in the rough. But
around his upbringing were the traditions of the
older lands. The pioneer Horton Academy and
Acadia College taught the sons and grandsons
of the settlers. But they were in touch with
the philosophy of the centuries.

The voyage to Scotland was made in a sailing

11

Sir Charles Tupper

vessel that took six weeks over it. Arriving in
Glasgow the young student had to proceed to
Edinburgh by the stage-coach. He entered for
his medical course at the University of that city,
and for three years pursued his medical and
surgical studies there. It may be supposed that
he brought to them the vigour and thoroughness
which has always distinguished him. In 1843 he
was admitted as a member of the Royal College
of Surgeons, Edinburgh. Later in the year he
took his degree of Doctor of Medicine at the
University. His age was now twenty-two. He
had made good use of his six years of training.
And now — equipped for the work of life — he
turned his face again towards his native land.
Arrived in Nova Scotia he began practice in the
county of Cumberland amid the surroundings
of his youth, making Amherst his head-quarters.
The medical profession is always an arduous
one, and the beginning of a practice is usually
an anxious time for the young practitioner.
But between the medical profession as practised
in our large cities, and the same calling as the
conditions were in Cumberland county in " the
forties," there is a great gulf. A practising doctor
needed the constitution of a horse, and in winter
the courage and the clothing of an Arctic ex-
plorer. Dr. Tupper pursued the duties of his
profession in Cumberland for twelve years, but

12

Biographical Sketch

his was never the life of a fashionable city
physician. Effective he was, and well known he
became ; the implicitly trusted medical adviser
of a whole countryside ; for it was understood
there that if Tupper gave you up you might as
well turn your face to the wall, and, vice versa,
that till he had given you up there was every
reason to hope for recovery. But at what an
expense to himself of body and brain this singu-
larly well-earned famed was obtained, only
those can judge who have studied the records of
those days, and who know something of the
arduous life of the country doctor. Dr. Tupper's
superior talents, dominating personality, and
efficiency in his profession soon attracted public
attention throughout a wide district. In person
he was of medium height, straight, muscular,
and wiry. He had intense nervous energy which
gave him quickness of movement and ceaseless
mental activity. His field of operations was
extensive, and in both winter and summer the
roads were, as usual, good, bad, and indifferent,
with a tendency towards the last two qualifica-
tions. Driving in sleigh or other vehicle, or
riding on horseback, he went from place to place,
sometimes in deep and drifted snow, and at other
times in mud more difficult than the worst snow-
drift. " In his twelve years of practice," says
Dr. Saunders, " mountainous obstacles became a

13

Sir Charles Tupper

level plain, and toil and exposure the highest
enjoyment. With a spirit that knew no dis-
appointment and saw no difficulty, and a body
well seasoned by these twelve years of labour,
he carefully examined the field that was to be
his political arena."

Never was an instance in which a public man
was more definitely prepared for his task. He
had passed through his period of pupilage with
credit. He had crossed the ocean — a much
rarer thing in those days than now — he had
spent three years in Britain. He had a pleasant
home and a lucrative practice. Had he desired
to escape the arduous toil of the country prac-
titioner, he knew that Halifax, St. John, or any
other city was an open field in which he need
entertain no fear of the results of fair competi-
tion. But his decision to remain where he had
begun, and his twelve years of a country doctor's
life, had important bearings on his future career.
Nor must it be for a moment supposed that the
duties of his practice made any less demand on
professional ability than those of the city physi-
cian. On the contrary, they made drafts on his
personal effectiveness, his confidence in himself,
and his readiness of resource, such as are
unknown to urban practice. But the most
important consideration with regard to those
years of professional duty, was the fact that

14

Lr

Biographical Sketch

they brought him into close touch with the men
who were to be his future political supporters
and opponents. He came to know them in a
way that would otherwise have been impossible.
He knew their style of living, their prejudices
and predilections. When he entered the political
arena he was therefore, so to speak, armed
cap-a-pie. Moreover, he attracted the respect of
that class of electors which prefers the man who
has distinguished himself in some calling or
occupation, to one who is merely a glib-tongued
demagogue, and has never earned his living by
anything in particular. Dr. Tupper was soon to
show that he could talk, and talk to good purpose.
But behind his eloquent periods there was the
memory of his previous years of good work ;
his victories over disease and accident in many a
home ; his professional courage that had never
wavered in a case of difficulty, and his compre-
hensive knowledge of the human nature of Nova
Scotia. Under these circumstances his first
political speeches inspired a respect and confi-
dence such as have rarely been given to the
beginner in political life.

An opportunity occurred in March, 1852,
which was to prove itself a memorable occasion
in Dr. Tupper's career, and the starting-point of
his historic years of statesmanship. There was
a contest for the representation of the county

15

Sir Charles Tupper

of Cumberland in the Nova Scotia Legislature.
The Conservative candidates were Messrs A.
Macfarlane and Thos. Andrew de Wolfe. The
Liberal candidates were none other than the
redoubtable Joseph Howe and Mr. Fulton. The
mere fact that Joseph Howe, the most popular
politician of his day, was to be faced by opposi-
tion and appear on the hustings, electrified the
county of Cumberland. Charles Tupper, the
promising student of 1840, had now become
the well-known young doctor, thirty-one years of
age — & marked man of his neighbourhood.

There are districts in Canada even now, when
at election times candidates and supporters have
to face primitive conditions of transport. But
what is now the exception was then the rule.
It speaks well for the vivid interest taken in
political matters by the Cumberland men that
on nomination day, at River Philip, three thou-
sand men were gathered round the hustings.
The farmers had driven in from long distances,
so that miscellaneous vehicles and horses over-
flowed all accommodation. Dr. Tupper had
driven twenty miles the day before so as to be
on the spot and speak words of encouragement
to Mr. de Wolfe. On the evening of this candi-
date's arrival, a meeting was held in the school-
house at River Philip, and there in introducing
Mr. de Wolfe, Dr. Tupper made his first political

16

Biographical Sketch

speech. Then, at a meeting of the Conservative
leaders, the question came up, Who should pro-
pose de Wolfe at the nomination a few days later ?
The choice fell on the eloquent young doctor,
and he discharged the duty with a dominating
force, that left an enduring impression on all
present. With a courage that never failed him,
he crossed swords with Joseph Howe, whom he
drove from power a few years later. For a
crucial test of his ability came in 1855, when
Dr. Tupper, yielding to the solicitations of his
friends, accepted the party nomination. Tupper
was Howe's junior by twenty-one years. He is
described at this period as possessing " a bell-
toned voice, fearless self-reliance, a dogmatic
manner, and a capacity for uttering trenchant
criticisms that begat in all who heard him a
fighting mood, either for or against the speaker."1
The campaign proved an unusally exciting one,
as Howe, his opponent, enjoyed the prestige of
being a great orator. It was a battle royal, and
the province awakened to the fact that the Liberal
leader had met a worthy foeman who asked and
gave no quarter.

The result was a sweeping victory for the
Liberals, redeemed only by Dr. Tupper's defeat
of Howe. On returning to Halifax, Howe told
his friends that he had been vanquished by the

1 Vide Saunders' "Three Premiers of Nova Scotia."

c 17

Sir Charles Tupper

future leader of the Conservative party, and at a
later date Howe unsuccessfully sought an alliance
with Dr. Tupper.

At the first caucus after the election, Hon.
W. J. Johnstone, the Opposition leader, whose
long career had been no less brilliant than that
of Howe, expressed a desire to retain only
nominal leadership, leaving the actual leader-
ship to his young colleague. Before this arrange-
ment became effective Dr. Tupper, with the
assurance of a veteran statesman, declared that
his party must reverse its hostile attitude
towards the Roman Catholics ; that the true
policy was equal rights to all, without regard to
race or creed ; and that all hostility to the
railway policy of the Government must be
abandoned. His counsel proved sound, for a
month after the opening of the House the
Opposition had increased its voting strength
from fifteen to twenty-two, as compared with
twenty-eight for the Government. The Con-
servatives attained power two years later, meet-
ing defeat, however, by a small margin in 1859.

Four years later the Conservatives swept the
province, and again Dr. Tupper refused to lead,
deferring to his old chieftain, Johnstone, whose
connection with politics dated back to 1838.
Mr. Johnstone resigned from the Government
in the following year to accept the position of

Biographical Sketch

Judge in Equity, and Dr. Tupper succeeded
him as Premier. Many changes in the policy of
his party had been made during the preceding
nine years. Howe re-entered the Assembly in
the late 'fifties, and by advocating the pro-
scription of Roman Catholics aroused bitter
sectarian strife throughout the province. Dr.
Tupper, on the other hand, by his tolerant views,
won hosts of new supporters. Howe justified
himself on the ground that his mission to New
York to raise recruits for the British army in
the Crimea, from among expatriated Britishers,
had been rendered unsuccessful by the hostile
opposition of Irish Americans. On one occasion
troops were called out at Halifax to suppress
religious riots. The end of the affair was that
Mr. Cranston, the British minister at Washing-
ton, was dismissed because of his real or supposed
connection with Howe's alleged breach of inter-
national law.

Previous to 1864 the confederation of the
British North American provinces had been
discussed in legislative assemblies, in lectures
and newspapers, only, however, in a theoretic
and academic manner. As far back as 1838 it
was the subject of a conference between repre-
sentatives of the various provinces and Lord
Durham, Governor-General, at Quebec.

In 1860, Dr. Tupper, then in opposition,|was

19

Sir Charles 1 upper

invited to open the Mechanics' Institute at St.
John, N.B. This he did by a lecture on " The
Political Condition of British North America,"
which he repeated at various other points during
the next three years. His utterances, as pub-
lished in the St. John Morning Chronicle of
November 10th, 1860, in the light of later events
were indeed prophetic. After reviewing the
condition of the scattered provinces, he is quoted
as having said : —

" Who could doubt that under these circum-
stances, with such a federation of the five pro-
vinces (to which ultimately the Red River and
the Saskatchewan country might be added) as
would give us the position due to our extent,
resources and intelligent population, untram-
melled either by slavery or the ascendancy of
any dominant Church ; almost the last country
where civil and religious liberty exists, British
America, stretching from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, would in a few years present to the world
a great and powerful organization ; with British
institutions, sympathies and feelings ; bound
indissolubly to the throne of England by a com-
munity of interests, and united to it by the vice-
royalty of one of the promising sons of our
beloved Queen, whose virtues have enthroned
her in the hearts of her subjects in every section
of an Empire upon which the sun never sets."

20

Biographical Sketch

In the Session of 1861, Premier Howe, who as
an astute politician was keenly alive to the
activities of his young rival, submitted a resolu-
tion to the Nova Scotia Legislature in favour of
Confederation. The resolution was seconded by
Dr. Tupper and was unanimously adopted.
This was not the first time that Howe had advo-
cated political union of the Canadian provinces,
and his subsequent change of front was all the
more unexpected, except to those who discerned
the motives that prompted his subsequent erratic
course.

To Sir Charles Tupper alone belongs the credit
of having initiated the movement that came to
fruition by the passage of the British North
America Act, after a struggle unparalleled for
the bitterness of feeling it engendered through-
out his native province. The records of the
legislature tell in outline the earlier part of the
story.

As the following pages are in large measure
the story of Sir Charles Tupper's life, it is un-
necessary to prolong this biographical sketch.
Mention may, however, be made of a typical
instance which evidenced the power of quick
decision, the tenacity of purpose and the abound-
ing vitality which have distinguished him through-
out his extended career.

Mr. Harris L. Adams has given, in the pages

21

Sir Charles Tupper

of the " Farmers' Magazine," a graphic descrip-
tion of the way in which these qualities were
displayed when Sir Charles was High Com-
missioner for Canada in London. At that time
Canadian cattle were freely admitted to Great
Britain, and it appears that a consignment of
them was condemned at the landing-wharves in
Liverpool on the ground that some of the animals
were affected with pleuro-pneumonia. The agent
in Liverpool to whom the condemned cattle had
been consigned, reported by cable to the shipper
in Canada that the whole of the shipment would
have to be slaughtered, because some of the
steers were tainted with the dreaded disease.
The shipper at once cabled to Sir Charles Tupper
for advice.

Sir Charles was busy in his office shortly after
the opening hours on the Thursday on which
the cablegram was received. It was handed to
him by his secretary, Mr. Colmer. The usual
course in such a case would have involved a
certain amount of red tape and circumlocution.
But Sir Charles disregarded precedents and pro-
cedure. He inquired from his secretary as to
where were the nearest surgical instrument shops,
and the nearest bookseller's who supplied medical
books. He told him to reserve him a compart-
ment on the first train to Liverpool. At the
bookseller's Sir Charles got the latest works on

22

Biographical Sketch

the diseases of cattle, put them in his hansom
cab, and was driven rapidly to the surgical
instrument maker's. He emerged with a big
case of instruments, and when he reached
Euston station dashed along the platform with
the books under one arm and the surgical instru-
ments under the other. Colmer was in readiness
for him, handed him his ticket, and saw him safe
into his compartment. On the way down Sir
Charles, so to speak, tore the heart out of the
books so far as they related to the disease in
question. By the time he reached Liverpool he
was well up in the knowledge of pleuro-pneu-
monia.

Arrived there he drove immediately to the
cattle yards and asked to see the condemned
cattle that had recently arrived from Canada.
Then he called for the inspectors who had con-
demned them. Sir Charles put each of them
through a sharp examination. He made each
one define his reasons for his action. Going
again to the yards the inspectors were requested
to point out an animal which they considered
was affected. Each was asked to state what
would be found, on dissection, to be the condi-
tion of the lungs and other organs of the body.
Each man was pinned down to exact details.
Then Sir Charles ordered that the condemned
animal should be slaughtered. He then rolled

Sir Charles Tupper

up his sleeves and dissected the various parts —
doing this with a thoroughness that left no open-
ing for uncertainty. Another and yet another
animal were brought in and subjected to the same
operations. No symptom whatever of disease
was found, and by the evening he had proved
that the inspectors had been quite erroneous in
their conjectures. Sir Charles left the cattle
yard in triumph, and had the pleasure of writing
to the Canadian shipper that his cattle were all
right. " As for the Liverpool inspectors," says
Mr. Adams, " they made no more condemnation
of Canadian cattle lest, as they said, ' that old
devil from London should blow down here
again.' : Truly this incident shows the Father
of Confederation in a vivid light.

Sir Charles entered Canadian politics in 1855.
He retired from Parliament in 1900 after forty-
five years of continuous service, during which he
was a great and commanding figure in the public
life not only of Canada, but of the Empire.
In the words of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, his oldest
living political opponent, on the occasion of the
unveiling of the tablet in London to " The
Fathers of Confederation," in 1911 : " Next to
Macdonald the man who did most to bring
Canada into Confederation was Sir Charles
Tupper."

On May 1st, 1913, the aged statesman left

24

Biographical Sketch

Canada to reside in England. He stayed at
Amherst on the way to his ship — Amherst his
old home, and the scene of so many associations
with the past. For a whole week festivity fol-
lowed festivity, says Mr. John Boyd, writing of
the time in the " Canadian Magazine," " and
the most pleasing feature of the celebration was
that all party differences were forgotten, and
that Liberals and Conservatives united to do
honour to one who though one of the stoutest
fighters and hardest hitters of his time in the
political arena was always a generous opponent."
On the occasion of this visit to Amherst it was
remarked that Sir Charles's voice, always power-
ful, was still strong and clear. He addressed a
great meeting, and every word was heard dis-
tinctly even by those at the farthest extremity
of the immense hall in which the assembly
gathered.

Sir Charles Tupper married in 1846 Miss
Frances Morse, a daughter of Mr. Silas Morse,
prothonotary of Amherst. His family consists
of one daughter and three sons, the latter all
being King's Counsel and well known in Canadian
legal circles.

25

Ill

THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION

" TTN the winter Session of 1864," said Sir

Charles, " as Premier of Nova Scotia I

M introduced and carried a resolution in

favour of a legislative union of the Maritime

Provinces, explaining that I regarded it as a

step in the direction of a wider union in the way

of which insuperable difficulties then existed.

" Delegates from the three provinces, Nova
Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Bruns-
wick, were appointed to attend a conference to
be held at Charlottetown on September 1st of
that year. Hon. Joseph Howe was the first man
I invited to attend, as I valued the strength
of his influence. Mr. Howe, however, wrote
declining the invitation on the ground that he
was then a Fisheries officer in the employ of the
Imperial Government, but wished us success,
adding that he would return from a cruise on a
warship in October, and would do everything in
his power to carry out any policy we adopted at
Charlottetown .

26

The Story of Confederation

"After the action of the Nova Scotia Legisla-
ture, and before the Charlottetown conference —
wearied with prolonged conflict — Upper and
Lower Canada made a desperate effort to relieve
themselves from a tangle of difficulties that
hindered all progress. The Government, being
out- voted, made overtures to Hon. George Brown,
leader of the Opposition, and a coalition Govern-
ment was formed with the avowed object of
bringing about Confederation. Later the gov-
ernors of the Maritime Provinces received a
despatch from the Governor-General inquiring
whether the Charlottetown convention would
receive a deputation from the Canadian Govern-
ment, which wished to express its views on the
wider union.

" Favourable replies were sent, and we received
the delegates with open arms. There was free
and frank discussion of the subject, and after a
ten days' conference an adjournment to meet in
Quebec on October 10th, to adopt a basis of
union, was agreed to. The Canadian delegates
received a hearty welcome in every city and town
they visited and were handsomely entertained.
The list comprised : Hon. John A. Macdonald,
Hon. George Brown, Hon. Alexander T. Gait,
Hon. George E. Cartier, Hon. Hector L. Lan-
gevin, Hon. Wm. Macdougall, and Hon. Thos.
D'Arcy McGee.

27

Sir Charles Tupper

" Before returning to Quebec the delegates
went by steamer to Halifax, where I presided at
a complimentary banquet at which Hon. Joseph
Howe, then out of public life, as I have stated,
in an eloquent speech, wished all success to the
Confederation movement. There was also a
note of united sentiment and united purpose in
the deliverances of the visiting delegates, includ-
ing those of Hon. John A. Macdonald, Hon.
George E. Cartier, Hon. George Brown, and
Hon. D'Arcy McGee.

Historic Quebec Conference

" The Quebec conference, which was also
attended by delegates from Newfoundland, as-
sembled on October 10th and concluded its
deliberations on October 27th. It met under
the sanction of the Crown. The mayor, who
was not any too friendly to Confederation,
presided at a banquet at which I made the
principal speech in reply on behalf of the delega-
tion from the Lower Provinces. There was
wonderful accord among the various representa-
tives in regard to general principles involved in
drafting a basis of union. We agreed that
representation should be by population, and
that the province of Quebec, as most unlikely
to change, should be the pivot, receiving sixty-
five members for ever ; and that the other

28

The Story of Confederation

provinces should have representation based on
that figure in order to prevent the House of
Commons becoming too large and unwieldy.

" Hon. John A. Macdonald was originally in
favour of a legislative union of the whole, as a
matter of theory, but when we took up the
subject he was in accord with the others that
the only practical solution was by the adoption
of a federal scheme. There was considerable
discussion as to whether the Dominion Senate
should be elective or nominative. The only
individual among the thirty-three who raised
objections to it being nominative was Hon.
Oliver Mowat, a member of the coalition Govern-
ment, who, however, did not challenge a vote.
That was all the more surprising, as Canada, at
that period, had an elective Senate.

" On my motion it was agreed that the first
federal senate should be composed of the mem-
bers of existing legislative councils of all the
provinces ; the various governments to select
them in equal portions from both parties as far
as practicable. The building of an intercolonial
railway was also included in the resolutions
adopted at Quebec.

" My fellow-delegates from Nova Scotia were
Hon. W. A. Henry, Hon. R. B. Dickey, Hon.
Jonathan McCully and Hon. A. G. Archibald.
A number of us toured Ontario and Quebec

29

Sir Charles Tupper

before returning home and received a very hearty
reception. The members of the Quebec confer-
ence agreed that the basis of union should first
be endorsed by the various provincial legislatures
before the Imperial Government was asked to pass
the necessary legislation to give effect to the union.
" Certain happenings in the following year
in the Lower Provinces indeed made the outlook
for Confederation anything but favourable.
Premier Tilley, in New Brunswick, appealed to
the country, giving way to an anti-Confederate
Government. The same thing happened in
Prince Edward Island. Under these circum-
stances I had no alternative than to adopt a
waiting policy, feeling confident that public
opinion, alarmed by the unfounded representa-
tions of our opponents, would sooner or later
undergo a change. My surmise proved correct.

Howe's Right-about Face

" A large number of my own supporters,
including prominent Halifax bankers and busi-
ness men, opposed the union movement, and
Hon. Joseph Howe was tempted to accept the
leadership of the opposing party, completely
repudiating the views he had formerly expressed.
The agitation soon assumed large proportions,
and the issue sharply divided the population.
It was aggravated by the hostility displayed

30

The Story of Confederation

towards free schools. In 1864, owing to the
backward state of education in the province, I
passed a Bill providing for a double grant to
every school district voluntarily accepting taxa-
tion for the support of free schools. This induce-
ment proved a failure, and in the following year
I succeeded in enacting a more sweeping measure,
providing for free schools, supported by compul-
sory taxation. As the Conservatives were the
larger property holders they offered strong
opposition ; the Liberals, generally speaking,
being favourable to free schools.

" Seeing New Brunswick fast coming into line,
I introduced a resolution in the Legislature in
April, 1866, in favour of sending delegates to a
conference with the other provinces in London
to finally negotiate the terms of union. The
resolution passed both Houses by a large majority.
Subsequently the Confederation party, led by
Hon. Mr. Tilley, swept New Brunswick, whose
Legislature met and adopted a similar resolu-
tion. The united parliament of Upper and
Lower Canada had made a similar pronounce-
ment in the previous year. All this cleared the
way for the London conference ; Prince Edward
Island and Newfoundland abstaining.

" On December 4th, 1866, the following dele-
gates assembled in conference at the West-
minster Palace Hotel, London : —

31

Sir Charles Tupper

" Canada. — Hon. John A. Macdonald, Hon.
George E. Cartier. Hon. A. T. Gait, Hon. Wm.
Macdougall, Hon. W. P. Rowland, and Hon.
H. L. Langevin.

" Nova Scotia. — Hon. Charles Tupper, Hon.
W. A. Henry, Hon. J. W. Ritchie, Hon. J.
McCully, Hon. A. G. Archibald.

" New Brunswick. — Hon. S. L. Tilley, Hon.
Peter Mitchell, Hon. R. D. Wilmot, Hon. J. M.
Johnson, Hon. Chas. Fisher.

Conference in London

" I proposed that Hon. J. A. Macdonald
should be chairman of the conference, which was
seconded by Hon. S. L. Tilley, and carried
unanimously. The conference then entered upon
the consideration of the Quebec resolutions.
On December 25th the chairman wrote inform-
ing Lord Carnarvon, Secretary of State, that
the delegates, who had sat steadily for twenty
days, had arrived at a satisfactory conclusion,
and had adopted, by a unanimous vote, a series
of resolutions which would be sent to the Colonial
Office the next day.

" Draft Bills were submitted, and finally,
with minor amendments, the British North
America Act, uniting the five provinces, was
passed by the Imperial Parliament, March 9th,
1867. At my request — by cable — the Legisla-

32

The Story of Confederation

ture of Nova Scotia was called to meet later in
the same month. I crossed the Atlantic and
submitted a copy of the Confederation Act. It
was approved by a large majority of both
Houses. The Act went into effect on July 1st
of the same year, Sir John A. Macdonald, who
meantime had been created a K.C.B., being
called upon by Lord Monck — the first Governor-
General — to form the first Government, which
was composed of leading men of both parties in
the several provinces.

" The calling of the London conference had
been the signal for the anti-Confederates in
Nova Scotia to send a delegation, headed by
Hon. Joseph Howe, to England, to oppose the
proposed union. They bore petitions from
eight Nova Scotia counties, and one signed by
five members of the Legislative Council, and
eighteen members of the House of Assembly.
This transferred the battleground from Halifax
to London."

Tapper's Reply to Howe

Howe wrote a pamphlet and distributed copies
broadcast among the members of the House of
Commons, the House of Lords and the British
public. He demanded that the matter of union
be deferred until it had been submitted to his
fellow-countrymen at the polls. He took the
D 33

Sir Charles Tupper

ground that the proposition would be against
the best interests of the Maritime Provinces and
the British Empire ; and as a substitute he
proposed a federation of the Empire with colonial
representation in the Imperial Parliament. His
pamphlet evoked a stirring rejoinder from Dr.
Tupper, addressed to Lord Carnarvon, Secre-
tary of State for the Colonies. The line of
attack adopted by Dr. Tupper is best indicated
by one of his opening paragraphs : —

" Mr. Howe has rested his arguments upon
his own unsupported statements. In the obser-
vations I have to make on these statements
I shall take the liberty of quoting, among other
authorities, one which that gentleman ought to
respect,' for it is his own. I shall produce from
Mr. Howe's previous public speeches and writ-
ings, the most elaborate refutation of all the
reasoning by which he now endeavours to
obstruct the union of the British North American
colonies."

" Following the issue of Howe's pamphlet,
the 'Star,' the organ of Mr. John Bright, which
had hitherto been friendly to Confederation,
wheeled around, and, in a leader, declared that
a mistake had been made," continued Sir Charles
Tupper, in recalling the dramatic incidents of
those bygone days.

" Lord Carnarvon, in a state of consternation,

34

The Story of Confederation

sent for me and informed me that he had been
called on that very day by twelve leading public
men, who announced their intention, after read-
ing the objections raised by Howe, of opposing
the union.

" I replied that I would answer Howe, and I
at once wrote to the editor of the 'Star,' asking
for an interview. I received a favourable reply
from Mr. Justin McCarthy, the editor. I then
called on him, also meeting his editorial colleague,
Mr. Chesson. I stated my mission and submitted
my reply to Howe, with a request that it be
published. I also expressed the hope that if
Howe failed to reply, the ' Star ' would acknow-
ledge its mistake. The ' Star ' printed my reply,
Howe failed to answer it, and the ' Star ' came
back into line and supported Confederation.

Howe finally Silenced

>c I then issued a pamphlet in reply to Howe's,
sending copies to the members of both Houses
and to the Press. Howe continued his silence,
and the British North America Act met with
feeble opposition, receiving the support of mem-
bers of both political parties. Lord Carnarvon
and I had become great friends on the occasion
of my first official visit to England in 1858.
He was at that time Under-Secretary of State
for the Colonies, his chief being Sir Bulwer

35

Sir Charles Tupper

Lytton, and Disraeli being Chancellor of the
Exchequer. With regard to the more prominent
of those who took part in Confederation, and
their general characteristics, it may be said that
Sir John A. Macdonald had an extremely attrac-
tive personality, and was unequalled as a tac-
tician. Without being an eloquent speaker he
was very effective on the floor of the House.
His popularity throughout Ontario was very
great. His great colleague, Sir George E. Cartier,
was a man of great industry and indomitable
courage, and was easily the most influential man
in the Province of Quebec. As Sir John said of
him : ' He is as bold as a lion,' and he exercised
a wonderful influence and control over his
French-Canadian supporters. He was also a
very agreeable personage in every way.

" Hon. George Brown was a writer of great
ability, his oratorical gifts not being very great.
As editor of the ' Toronto Globe ' he wielded a
vigorous pen. His newspaper was a great
power in Ontario. He was defeated at the first
General Election after Confederation, and never
obtained a seat until awarded a senatorship by
the Mackenzie Government. As a member of
the coalition Government he took a prominent
part in shaping the events that led to the Quebec
conference and the union. He afterwards became
a bitter opponent of Sir John A. Macdonald,

36

The Story of Confederation

against whom he had previously carried on a
vigorous warfare.

" Sir Leonard Tilley was a man of high personal
character and a very effective speaker. He
became Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick
when the Conservative party fell in 1873. Five
years later, in 1878, he entered Sir John's ad-
ministration, and as Minister of Finance carried
into effect the protective policy of the party.

" Hon. Peter Mitchell had many strong traits.
He was an active member of the Legislative
Council of New Brunswick, when Confederation
was carried, exercising much influence on that
occasion.

" Hon. D'Arcy McGee greatly aided the same
cause by the many eloquent speeches he delivered
throughout the various provinces. He was
easily the greatest orator of his day, and a lov-
able man, for whom I entertained a very high
regard.

Forming first Federal Government

"In June, 1867, Sir John A. Macdonald
communicated with me, asking me to come to
Quebec and bring Mr. Archibald to assist in the
formation of the first Federal Government.
Hon. George Brown had previously quarrelled
with Sir John and left the coalition Government,
his two Liberal colleagues, Howland and Mac-

37

Sir Charles Tupper

dougall, remaining. Unfortunately Hon. Mr.
Cartier was deeply offended at this juncture,
because Sir John Jiad just been honoured with
a K.C.B., while the lesser honour of C.B. had
been bestowed on him, Gait, Tilley, and myself ;
so when we met to organize the first administra-
tion, Cartier declared he could not carry the
province unless he were given two French-
Canadian colleagues.

" Gait also had a grievance over the superior
Confederation honours conferred on Sir John.
He could not be overlooked, as he represented
the Protestant element in Quebec, and Hon. Mr.
McGee likewise had claims as the only representa-
tive of the Irish Catholics. This meant five
Cabinet ministers from Quebec. Rowland and
Macdonald took the ground, and rightly, too,
that they could not carry Ontario unless that
province, owing to its larger population, secured
a larger Cabinet representation than the sister
province.

" Sir John, with all his resourcefulness, could
find no satisfactory solution of the difficulty,
and after a deadlock, lasting almost a week,
decided to abandon the task and ask the
Governor- General to send for Hon. George
Brown to form a government. Realizing that
a combination of Sir John and Cartier was essen-
tial to the organization of a strong government

38

The, Story of Confederation

and that otherwise Confederation would be
endangered, I went to McGee and said : —

" ' The union of the provinces is going to end
in a fiasco unless we give way. We are the
only two men who can avert that calamity.' I
then proposed that he should stand aside in
favour of Sir Edward Kenny of Halifax, as the
representative of the Irish Catholics, and that I
should likewise surrender my claims for a port-
folio.

" McGee readily agreed to my proposition.
I then called on Sir John, who repeated that he
had given up the task and that he had invited
the others to meet him at the council chamber
on the following Monday morning to announce
his failure, and that he would request Lord
Monck to summon Hon. George Brown. I then
told him I had a solution and at once briefly
explained it.

Tapper's Solution Effective

" ' But what are you going to do, Tupper ?
Will you take a governorship ? ' asked Sir John.

" ' I would not take all the governorships
rolled into one. I intend to run for a seat in
the Dominion Parliament,' was my reply.

" This interview took place on a Saturday
night. Macdougall and Rowland never thought
for a moment that the Government would be

39

Sir Charles Tupper

formed when they put in an appearance at the
council chamber on Monday morning at eleven
o'clock. They were holding out for a larger
representation for Ontario than they would
concede to Quebec. They had their coats on
their arms and were about to catch a train to
journey to Toronto to attend a public meeting
called for the following evening by Hon. George
Brown to oppose any Government formed by
Sir John Macdonald.

" ' Tupper has found a solution,' said Sir
John to the assembled public men, as he glanced
at me. He explained it, everybody was satisfied,
and in less than fifteen minutes his Cabinet was
formed. Cartier got portfolios for Chapais and
Langevin, his two French- Canadian supporters,
and Gait was taken in, making four members
from Quebec and five from Ontario. Kenny
and Archibald, both old Liberals, were sworn in
as the representatives of Nova Scotia, and Hon.
Peter Mitchell, also a Liberal, was one of the
new Cabinet ministers from New Brunswick.
I went back to Nova Scotia single-handed, and
in the General Elections in the following Septem-
ber was the only Conservative returned from
that province."

The campaign was an extremely bitter one,
Howe using his powerful influence to fan the
flames of discontent and passion. He made

40

The Story of Confederation

much capital out of the failure of Dr. Tupper to
submit the issue to a vote of the people, claiming
that they had been dragooned into union, and
he ascribed a large share of the responsibility
to the Imperial Government. These arguments
from the man who had, at an earlier date, fought
the battle for constitutional government in Nova
Scotia, made a deep impression upon great
masses of the people to whom the people of the
Upper Provinces were utter strangers.

Howe's Public Threat

In a public speech Howe made this threat : —
" The sooner it is known the better, that the
people of Nova Scotia are determined to defeat
this idea of erecting a new Dominion in British
America. They are determined that not a pound
of their capital shall go to paying the debts of
Canada ; that not an acre of their province
shall go under Canadian rule, and that not a
man of their militia shall be liable to be marched
up to the backwoods of Canada to fight the
battles of faction, or to prevent Canada from
burning down Parliament buildings or pelting
governors through the streets."

Howe and Tupper met in a famous public
debate at Truro, the event attracting a vast
audience. Howe had previously refused to meet
Tupper in Halifax. At Truro the younger man

41

Sir Charles Tupper

proved more than a match for his veteran oppo-
nent, according to the chronicles of that time.
Howe appealed to passion, distorted the issue,
and touched a sore point when he asserted that
Nova Scotia would be tax-ridden to support the
Upper Provinces.

Obliged to admit that he had not been given
a seat in the Dominion Cabinet, but refraining
from an explanation of the true cause, Dr.
Tupper, with that great courage that sustained
him in a hundred fights, delivered a crushing
reply. He reviewed the public career of Howe,
quoting numerous speeches in favour of Con-
federation, including one made at a public dinner
at Halifax in honour of the union delegation
from the Upper Provinces.

16 1 have given you the authority of the leading
men of this country, of the colonial ministry, of
the British ministry, and in addition you have
the authority of the House of Peers and Commons
of Great Britain," said Dr. Tupper, on another
occasion when discussing the constitutional phase
of the question and justifying the course adopted
in bringing about the union.

i6 Let detraction assail that Parliament as it
may, but there is not a freeman through the
length and breadth of the British Empire who
can fail to admire and respect that body, which
among the convulsions which have shaken nations

42

The Story of Confederation

from the centre to the circumference, has main-
tained the proud pre-eminence of England. It
does not become a public man, at a time when
the Parliament of Great Britain is attracting
the attention of the civilized world, when it is
the great object of other nations to assimilate
their institutions as nearly as possible to those
of our Mother Country, to attempt to cast obloquy
upon it.

Queen Victoria's Tribute

" The statesmen of Great Britain, without
regard to party — whether Liberal or Conserva-
tive, Whig or Tory — united in one common
acclaim, that the colonies would not only be
rendered more prosperous, but that the ties that
now bind them to the Empire would be strength-
ened.

" From the lips of our Royal Sovereign I have
heard the warmest approval of union. The pro-
vince I represented had the great honour and
distinction of my receiving Her Majesty's com-
mand to wait upon her at Buckingham Palace,
and upon that occasion Her Majesty congratu-
lated me upon the success which had attended
our efforts, and when I expressed the gratifica-
tion with which her loyal subjects would learn
the deep interest she had evinced in this measure,
she replied : ' I take the deepest interest in it,

43

Sir Charles Tupper

for I believe it will make them great and pros-
perous.' "

Early in 1868 Mr. Howe and a number of other
delegates, bearing enormous petitions asking
for the release of Nova Scotia from the union,
were despatched to England. The Imperial
Government refused the appeal, and the House
of Commons, by a vote of 181 to 87, refused to
appoint a Royal Commission.

" Sir John Macdonald asked me to go to
London to oppose this move," continued Sir
Charles. " He said : ' Tupper, have you an
objection to Gait going too ? ' ' Certainly not,'
I replied. Gait, however, refused to go, alleging
that I was on such bad terms with Howe that
the mission was bound to be a failure. I then
informed Sir John that I should prefer to go
alone.

Tupper meets Howe in London

" On reaching London the first man I called
on was Mr. Howe. He was not in, but I left my
card. Howe returned the call, and on greeting
me, said : ' Well, I can't say that I am glad to
see you, but we have to make the best of it.'
I replied that the situation was indeed grave
enough, but that it was better to have a frank
understanding. I said to him : —

" ' I will not insult you by suggesting that

44

The Story of Confederation

you should fail to undertake the mission that
brought you here. When you find out, how-
ever, that the Government and the Imperial
Parliament are overwhelmingly against you,
it is important for you to consider the next
step.'

" Howe replied : ' I have 800 men in each
county in Nova Scotia who will take an oath
that they will never pay a cent of taxation to
the Dominion, and I defy the Government to
enforce Confederation.'

" ' You have no power of taxation, Howe,' I
replied, ' and in a few years you will have every
sensible man cursing you, as there will be no
money for schools, roads or bridges. I will
not ask that troops be sent to Nova Scotia,
but I shall recommend, if the people refuse to
obey the law, that the Federal subsidy be with-
held.'

" I also reminded him that all the judges,
bishops and clergy, and the best element in the
province heartily supported the union.

" I then showed him a copy of my letter to
Sir John declining the chairmanship of the
Intercolonial Railway Board, and told him that
I would not accept a portfolio or any office
until I had a majority from Nova Scotia at my
back. At the time of which I speak, Archibald,
one of the Cabinet ministers from Nova Scotia,

45

Sir Charles Tupper

had just been defeated, and his colleague, Kenny,
was in the Senate.

' Howe,' I continued, ' you have a majority
at your back, and if you will enter the Cabinet
and assist in carrying out the work of Confedera-
tion you will control all the provincial patronage,
and you will find me as strong a supporter as
I have been an opponent.'

" I saw at once that Howe was completely
staggered, and two hours of free and frank dis-
cussion followed. I told him that between us
we could rally to his support three-quarters of
the wealth, education, and influence of the
province. That very night I wrote Sir John
that I had no doubt Howe would become a
member of his Cabinet.

Interview with Bright

" At the House of Commons a few days later
Hon. John Bright asked for an introduction to
me, and then stated that he had accepted Howe's
invitation to move a resolution in favour of a
commission of inquiry. He asked for my side
of the story, so next day I visited him at his
chambers. His newspaper, the 'Star,' was then
supporting Howe's demand for a Royal Commis-
sion. I frankly told Bright that he was not a
constitutionalist in the course he proposed to
follow, and informed him that the union had

46

The Story of Confederation

been approved by a large majority of both
Houses of the Nova Scotia Legislature.

" ' I don't mean to insinuate that these
majorities were obtained by crooked work, but
I know that improper means are sometimes used
over here,' Bright observed. I then warned him
that the disruption of Confederation meant
absorption of the various provinces by the
United States.

" ' Well,' he replied, after a pause, ' I can't
help thinking that it would be a grand thing to
see one Government rule from the equator to the
north pole.'

" ' If those are your views, Mr. Bright,' I
replied, ' I should think you could quite under-
stand why a public man from a small province
would prefer to see it a member of a Confedera-
tion rather than remain isolated, without accus-
ing him of being influenced by corrupt motives.'

" ' You got me there fairly,' was Bright 's
comment, with a laugh.

Prediction Fulfilled within the Time

" Mr. Bright then asked me if there was any
danger of a revolt in Nova Scotia. I replied
that the worst revolt I expected was to see Howe
become a member of Sir John's Cabinet within
six months, requesting him to regard the com-
munication as confidential. Four years later,

47

Sir Charles Tupper

meeting Mr. Bright at dinner in London, he re-
marked to me : ' I was incredulous over your
prediction, but I took a note of it and observed
that it was fulfilled within the time. Nobody
received the news with greater pleasure than I
did.'

" After my talk with Howe I called on the
Duke of Buckingham at the Colonial Office,
Lord Carnarvon having in the meantime resigned.
The Duke invited me to Stowe Park for the
Easter holidays, and said that it would afford
him pleasure to invite any members of Parlia-
ment I might care to meet in order to discuss
the impending issue in the House of Commons.
I replied that there was only one gentleman
I cared to meet, and that was Mr. Howe. The
Duke thereupon invited Mr. and Mrs. Howe, and
we met at Stowe Park.

" The visit gave me a good opportunity of
saying a good word on behalf of Cartier. I told
the Duke that Cartier was as strong in Quebec
as Sir John was in Ontario, and urged that the
French-Canadian leader was entitled to equal
consideration at the hands of the Crown. The
Duke agreed to see the Queen, and later informed
me that Her Majesty was quite willing, but that
nothing could be done, as the Crown could not
create any new member of the Order of the Bath
until a vacancy occurred. I then suggested that

48

The Story of Confederation

the difficulty be met by recommending Cartier
for a baronetcy. The Duke obtained the Queen's
consent, and thus the breach at home was
healed.

" Mr. Howe became a member of Sir John's
administration six months later, accepting the
presidency of the Council, and running for Hants
county, secured nearly as large a majority as
he had little more than a year before as an anti-
Confederate. He was afraid of the effect if I
entered the constituency and spoke in his behalf,
so I addressed a circular letter to the Conserva-
tives, therein giving reasons why they should
support Howe, and I had the satisfaction of
seeing my political friends go to the polls and
make up for the defections of Howe's former
supporters."

Stormy Session of 1870

The Session of 1870 proved a stormy one.
Sir A. T. Gait, Minister of Finance, had pre-
viously withdrawn from the Government and
joined the Opposition. He was succeeded by
Sir John Rose, who subsequently resigned, and
the portfolio then went to Sir Francis Hincks.
Exasperated over the selection of Hincks, Sir
Richard Cartwright wrote to Sir John A. Mac-
donald threatening to withdraw his support if
Hincks was sworn in.

E 49

Sir Charles Tupper

From this epistle arose the bitterness of feel-
ing which ever afterwards characterized the
relations between the Premier and Sir Richard.
Years afterwards, in the heat of debate, Sir
Charles Tupper referred to the cause which
prompted Cartwright's defection from the Con-
servative party. Sir Richard denied the charge,
and Sir Charles retorted that he had seen Cart-
wright's letter to Sir John.

Early in the season of 1870 the Opposition
made a most determined onslaught on the
Government, whose fate for a while trembled in
the balance. Sir John and his colleagues were
harshly criticized for the unrest, if not open
rebellion, which existed in Manitoba. Hon.
Alexander Mackenzie, Sir A. T. Gait, Sir Richard
Cartwright, and Hon. William Macdougall formed
the principal battery on the Opposition benches.
To add to the troubles, considerable dissatis-
faction arose among the ranks of the Govern-
ment supporters. There was open talk of revolt.
Hon. Mr. Masson, a strong supporter of Sir John,
showed his disaffection and voiced it in a speech,
and Mr. Mackenzie Bowell declared that the
Government should be turned out if half of what
was said about it were true.

A review of the debates of that critical period
indicates that Sir Charles Tupper took a leading
part in stemming the tide that was setting in

50

The Story of Confederation

against the Government. His speeches were
characterized by wonderful lucidity and clearness
of exposition. He gave and received many hard
knocks, but the end was that the stampede was
stopped and the Government was saved by a
good majority.

" Sir John came to me immediately after-
wards and insisted that I should enter his Govern-
ment," said Sir Charles in reference to the event.
:c I replied that a large deputation of Liberal
members from Nova Scotia had just urged me
to do so. Mr. Howe's health was anything but
satisfactory, and he was never heard at his best
in the House of Commons. I accepted the
Premier's invitation, and was sworn in as Presi-
dent of the Council, June 21st, 1870.

" In the General Elections of 1872 Howe and
I swept Nova Scotia. We were both elected by
acclamation, and I had then the proud satisfac-
tion of knowing that my earlier labours had not
been in vain, and that the anti-Confederation
agitation was dead for all time. Mr. Howe's
health gradually became worse. I knew his
ambition was to become Lieutenant-Governor
of his native province, and I discussed the matter
with Sir John, who stated that any arrangement
would be agreeable to him : so Mr. Howe was
nominated for that high honour on my recom-
mendation.

51

Sir Charles Tupper

" Before leaving Ottawa Mr. Howe gave a
farewell champagne luncheon, his parting in-
junction being : ' Boys, I want you to stand by
Tupper as he has stood by me.' Poor Howe
returned to Nova Scotia and had only been an
occupant of Government House three weeks when
he passed away."

52

IV

THE TRIP TO FORT GARRY

f "^HE story of Sir Charles Tupper's peri-
lous and adventurous overland trip
M to Fort Garry, now Winnipeg, in
December, 1869, is one that is not very familiar
to the present generation. His achievement in
penetrating alone into the stronghold of Louis
Kiel, the half-breed rebel leader, who subse-
quently fomented a second rebellion in 1885,
paying the penalty for high treason on the scaf-
fold at Regina, created a great sensation through-
out Canada at the time, and had far-reaching
effects in paving the way for a settlement of the
troubles and bringing about the peaceful transfer
of a vast region inhabited by a small and nomadic
population to the sovereignty of the young
Dominion, then in its swaddling clothes.

It was a characteristic Tupperian act which
no other prominent Canadian public man of that
period had the boldness to conceive or the cour-
age to undertake and carry out. There are many

53

Sir Charles Tupper

references to Dr. Tupper's exploit in the heated
debates of the parliamentary Session of 1870, as
recorded in the pages of Hansard.

Acquisition of the Territories

During the summer of the preceding year Sir
George E. Cartier and Hon. William Macdougall
—both Fathers of Confederation — visited Eng-
land on behalf of the Dominion Government, and
successfully negotiated the acquisition of the
North-west Territories — comprising the region
extending westward to the Rockies — and the
extinguishment of the title which had been
vested in the Hudson's Bay Company for nearly
250 years. Many difficulties and obstacles had
to be overcome. The famous trading corporation
showed no great desire to see a veritable empire,
where it enjoyed exceptional privileges and where
its officers the chief factors exercised very wide
authority, pass from its control.

Negotiations were, however, greatly facilitated
by the attitude of the Imperial Government,
which heartily sympathized with the aspirations
of far-seeing and patriotic Canadian statesmen
in favour of bringing about a federated Dominion
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It was realized
that the acquisition of the North-west must be
a prelude to the admission of British Columbia,

54

The Trip to Fort Garry

then a Crown colony, into the recently formed
Union.

On returning to Canada, Hon. Mr. Macdougall
was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the newly
acquired territories, and after a stay in Ottawa,
left for Fort Garry in company with the members
of his advisory council. Mr. Macdougall and his
party never reached their destination. The
French Canadian half-breeds of the Red River
settlement, falsely misled to believe that their
rights had not been safeguarded in London,
seized Fort Garry and set up a pro visional Govern-
ment. At that time no railway connected the
prairies with Eastern Canada, and St. Cloud, the
most northerly point on a railway in Minnesota,
was separated from Fort Garry by a distance of
nearly 400 miles.

The news, flashed from St. Paul a few days
later, electrified the people of Eastern Canada.
It had deeper significance for Hon. Dr. Tupper, as
his daughter, the wife of General Cameron, was a
member of the Governor's party. Alarmed for
her safety on learning that her personal baggage
and effects had been taken from her by the rebels,
Dr. Tupper's wife urged him to hurry west to
bring their daughter home. No persuasion was
needed to influence a man of the doctor's heroic
type.

55

Sir Charles Tupper

Undertakes Dangerous Mission

Subsequently, when ready to leave Ottawa,
Sir John A. Macdonald, thoroughly acquainted
with his resolute character and absolute fearless-
ness, asked him to undertake the dangerous mis-
sion of visiting Fort Garry for the purpose of
interviewing the leaders of the half-breeds. The
recovery of Mrs. Cameron's baggage, however,
served as a good pretext for visiting the country.
Dr. Tupper accepted the invitation without a
moment's hesitation.

Aided by diaries recording the happenings day
by day, and by a wonderful memory, Sir Charles
was able to recall the trip, with its adventures
and hardships, as though it had happened but a
few years ago. The aged baronet spoke modestly,
without a trace of pride in his remarkable exploit
and as though he had simply done a plain public
duty. Future historians will probably regard it
as one of the most patriotic and courageous
achievements in a long and brilliant career.

Daughter with Advance Party

" My only daughter, Emma, was married to
Captain D. R. Cameron, now Major- General,
C.M.G., of the Royal Artillery, in July, 1869.
Later in the same year Hon. William Macdougall,
M.P., was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the
North-west Territories, and Captain Cameron,

56

The Trip to Fort Garry

who was selected for the purpose by the Imperial
Government, was appointed a member of Mr.
MacdougalPs council. Captain and Mrs. Cameron
accompanied Mr. Macdougall and the other
members of the Council and party to Pembina,
preparatory to taking over the government, the
date for the transfer having been fixed for
December 1st, 1869," said Sir Charles in recalling
his memorable trip to Fort Garry.

" Before Mr. Macdougall and his party reached
Pembina, Louis Riel had placed himself at the
head of the disaffected French half-breeds, seized
Fort Garry, where Mr. McTavish, the Governor
of the Hudson's Bay Company, was dying of
consumption, and organized a government.

" The Dominion authorities then appointed
Grand Vicar Thibeault, a resident of Fort Garry ;
Col. de Salaberry, of Montreal ; and Mr. Donald
A. Smith (Lord Strathcona), chief factor of the
Hudson's Bay Company at Montreal, commis-
sioners to deal with the insurrection as best they
could. At that time there was no means of reach-
ing Fort Garry except via St. Paul, and not a
man or a musket could be sent through the United
States. Mr. MacdougalPs instructions were to go
to Fort Garry as a private citizen, until notified
that the transfer of the territory to Canada had
taken place, when he would assume office as
Lieutenant-Governor.

57

Sir Charles Tupper

Half-breeds threaten Macdougall

"When he reached the Hudson's Bay post,
two miles north of the international boundary
at Pembina, he was met by a force of twenty-
five armed half-breeds with an order from Kiel,
forbidding him to remain in the territory on pain
of death. He and his party returned to Pembina,
with the exception of Captain Cameron. The latter
proceeded on his way to Fort Garry, but hearing
that there was an armed force on the road,
he left Mrs. Cameron and her maid at Scratching
River and drove on with his orderly. At St.
Norbert, nine miles south of Fort Garry, he met
about 300 half-breeds under arms, who took him
prisoner and sent him back to Pembina under
an armed guard. On his way south he was joined
by Mrs. Cameron for the remainder of the journey.
The half-breeds had meantime seized their horses,
waggon and baggage.

" Pembina at that time was a small village of
log and mud houses. The only dwelling Captain
Cameron could secure was a log hut three-
quarters of a mile from any other habitation.
Mrs. Le May, their nearest neighbour, told my
daughter that a few months previously a party
of Cree Indians came to their house in the after-
noon and asked for bread. They returned at
sundown and proved their gratitude by saying :

58

The Trip to Fort Garry

' You very good. These Indians will not trouble
you any more,' at the same time one of them
opened a shawl and disclosed the bleeding scalps
of every man, woman and child of an encamp-
ment of Sioux Indians on the Canadian border,
which they had just wiped out.

" The feeling against the Canadians in Pem-
bina was very strong, owing to the fact that
Colonel Dennis, acting for Hon. Mr. Macdougall,
was endeavouring to incite the Indians to take
the warpath against Riel. The maid became
alarmed, and went to Fort Garry, where the man-
servant had been previously sent, to attempt to
recover the stolen baggage. One day Mr. Mac-
dougall sent for Captain Cameron, and thus my
daughter was left alone. In stalked a strapping
Indian, all paint and feathers. She thought the
best thing to do was to feed him. She cooked
him a feast. When the Indian had finished — and
Indians are known to eat enough at one meal to
last them a week — he expressed his satisfaction
in a series of grunts and took his departure.

Sir Charles leaves for the Scene

" My wife was much alarmed when she learned
the position of our only daughter, and urged me
to go and bring her home. I left Halifax, Decem-
ber 3rd, for Ottawa, sailing to New York on the
steamer * City of Antwerp.' At Ottawa, Sir John

59

Sir Charles Tupper

introduced me to Mr. Donald A. Smith, who was
preparing for his trip to Fort Garry. He had
been preceded by his colleagues, Grand Vicar
Thibeault, and Colonel de Salaberry.

" ' I hope you will be able to get into Fort
Garry, as no letter can now reach us from there,
and we are ignorant of what is taking place,'
said Sir John A. Macdonald to me in saying good-
bye. Mr. Smith, his brother-in-law Mr. Hardisty,
and I left Ottawa on December 13th with the
thermometer thirty degrees below zero. We
reached Chicago the following night at ten
o'clock, St. Paul the next day, St. Cloud, the
end of the railway, a day later, and Fort Aber-
crombie, the end of the stage line, on the after-
noon of December 19th.

" We hired a driver, a team of horses and a
canvas-covered sled for the 200-mile overland
journey to Pembina. Georgetown was reached
the next night at six o'clock. The Hudson's Bay
post there was the only place left standing
when the Sioux Indians rose in 1862, massacred
all the men and carried off all the women and
children into captivity. At Georgetown the
Hudson's Bay agent and his wife saved them-
selves by hoisting the British flag. ' That is the
Great Pale-face Mother,' declared the braves
as they espied the emblem floating in the
breeze.

60

The Trip to Fort Garry

Encounters Indians

" Resuming our journey we met a mail courier,
who informed us that Hon. Mr. Macdougall and
family, with the most of his party, had left Pem-
bina on the way south the Saturday before. At
two o'clock in the afternoon of December 21st
we met Mr. MacdougalPs outfit. Mr. Richards,
his attorney-general, told me that he had not
had his clothes off for two months ; he had been
living in hourly danger of losing his life. Mr.
Smith and I stopped to talk to Mr. Macdougall,
and Mr. Hardisty went on to the next point, a
mile distant, where we intended to camp for the
night.

" After a little time I said I would proceed,
thinking they might wish to have a confidential
talk. I had only gone half the distance when,
as if by magic, a dozen Indians surrounded me.
My predicament was no easy one, as I had left
my revolver in the sleigh. They could not speak
English or French, their vocabulary being re-
stricted to the words ' Red Lake,' as they pointed
in the direction whence they had come. The
adventure proved to be a bloodless one. After
feeling my racoon coat and jabbering away for
a while, they started off in the direction of
Georgetown.

" Our route during the ensuing days led through

61

Sir Charles Tupper

the valley of the Red River. We usually travelled
across the prairie, making the river at noon and
night. The course of the stream is so sinuous
that we saved time by making short cuts, instead
of following it. A fringe of forest trees occupied
the flat on both sides of the river, the basin of
which was, of course, considerably lower than the
surrounding country.

" At night we pitched our camps in these
forests. There was about a foot of snow on the
ground. We cleared it off with a shovel, spread
an india-rubber cloth, placed a mattress next,
and covered ourselves with blankets and buffalo
robes. We lay in the open air with our feet to
a blazing fire, which greatly added to our com-
fort.

" Our host gave us broiled elk at the last
house we visited before reaching Fort Aber-
crombie. When we offered to buy a hind-quarter
the landlord took us to an outhouse where six
fine elk, frozen stiff, stood erect in the box stalls.
At St. Paul the agent of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany had outfitted us with a box containing
potted chicken, tongue, wine, brandy, whisky,
bread, biscuits and cake, etc. We did not touch
the stimulants, so vivifying and bracing was the
air. We fared well on fried elk, butter, potatoes
and tea.

62

The Trip to Fort Garry

Cutting Milk with an Axe

" At Fort Abercrombie we obtained a pail of
frozen fresh milk and, cutting it with an axe,
placed pieces in the tea. When the elk gave out
we fell back on fat pork and potatoes. On reach-
ing Pembina the box of supplies was still intact,
and Mr. Smith generously presented it to my
daughter. It was a long and tiresome journey,
especially in the last stages, as the weather was
very cold.

" We arrived at Pembina at 11 o'clock on
Christmas eve. Captain Cameron was then
occupying the log house vacated by Mr. Mac-
dougall. c What did you come for ? ' was my
daughter's greeting when I entered. The next
day a young woman, a daughter of Mr. Cavalier,
the postmaster, was taken ill, and as there was
no doctor in the place I was requested to see her.
It proved to be an hysterical attack and yielded
readily to treatment.

" Mr. Smith went on to the Hudson's Bay
Company post, two miles north of Pembina.
I wished to go on to Fort Garry with him, but
he said that would not do, as all at Fort Garry
knew the active part I had taken in bringing
about Confederation, to which they ascribed all
their troubles. I told him in reply that I had
promised Sir John A. Macdonald to get into

63

Sir Charles Tupper

Fort Garry, and that I intended to do so. Mr.
Smith said he would get them to allow me to go
in to see Mr. McTavish, who was very ill, and
would let me know as soon as possible.

" Sunday, December 26th, hearing nothing, I
asked Mr. Roulette, the American customs officer,
to escort me to Fort Garry. He agreed to do so
if successful in getting a pass from Colonel Stuts-
man, a clever United States official who had been
born without any legs, and who acted as one of
Kiel's confidential advisers. Stutsman replied
that if he had the power he would not dare to
give the desired pass, as it would compromise
the American Government. When Roulette said
he could not go, I told his father, a drunken old
fellow who had married a full-blooded Sioux
squaw, that if he would let his son, a boy of
seventeen, take me to Fort Garry I would pay
him whatever he would ask. We struck a bargain
then and there.

46 1 then went to Cavalier's, ostensibly to give
directions for the treatment of his daughter dur-
ing my absence, but really to see Col. Stutsman,
who lived there. He said he was sorry, consider-
ing my kindness, that he could not do anything
to meet my wishes. I told him I wished him to
advise the best course I could take to get to Fort
Garry, as I wished to obtain the things that had
been taken from Captain Cameron, and it was

64

The Trip to Fort Garry

necessary for me to see Riel for that purpose.
He advised me to call on Father Richot, at
St. Norbert, and say he had recommended me
to do so.

" Fearing the people at Pembina, who were
very hostile to the Canadians, would prevent my
going to Fort Garry, I hurried away as quickly
as possible, being only able to secure a buffalo
robe, a bottle of sherry and a loaf of bread. When
we reached the Hudson's Bay post, the half-
breed boy suggested I should try to obtain a
toboggan, which would be safer than a sleigh in
a snowstorm. ' Drive in. I can get anything
he has,' was my reply.

" I then knocked at the door, which to my
astonishment was opened by my fellow-traveller,
Mr. Smith. 6 It is not possible that you could
be here for two days without seeing me, knowing
as you do my great anxiety to get to Fort Garry
just now and return,' I exclaimed.

"' It is at the cost of one's life to go to Fort
Garry just now. Riel has seized all the arms and
ammunition and whisky. A man was shot to
death yesterday, and it is simply courting death
to go there at present,' replied Mr. Smith.

" ' But why did you not tell me this, when
you knew of my impatience to hear from you ? '
I retorted.

" c Well, I know you are a very impetuous
F 65

Sir Charles Tupper

man, and I was afraid you would do something
rash,' explained Mr. Smith.

" ' I called here to ask your factor for the loan
of a dog-cariole. Can I have it ? '

"Don't go there now"

" ' Of course, you can have anything you wish,
but for God's sake don't go there now,' " was his
final word.

" I told him that I was much obliged, but that
I had not come for advice, and that I would
take the dog-cariole, to which we later hitched
our horse. A dog-cariole is a large canvas shoe
on a toboggan in which a man can lie down,
and the driver stands on the open part behind
him.

" With the sun an hour high, we started for
Scratching River, twelve miles distant. There
was about a foot of snow on the ground and we
drove on a beaten track. Shortly after sundown
the boy pulled up and said : ' We must go back.
There's going to be a frost.'

" ' What do you mean ? ' I asked.

" ' You will soon see,' he replied. And I did.
Within a few minutes we were enveloped in a
frozen fog, so dense that I could scarcely make
out the horse's head. The thermometer was then
about thirty below zero.

" ' The Red River cannot be more than a mile

66

The Trip to Fort Garry

from here on our right. We will go there and
make a fire,' I declared.

" ' I have no matches and no axe,' was the
boy's reply.

" ' We must be more than half-way to Scratch-
ing River, and it is as easy to go forward as back.
I will walk ahead of the horse and keep the track,'
I announced. Then I started on ahead and every
now and then got off the trail. Our predicament
was certainly anything but a pleasant one.
Finally, we lost the trail altogether and groped
aimlessly about the prairie.

" Observing that the fog only extended a
short distance above the ground, and recalling
a lesson taught me by my father in my boyhood,
I looked skyward and was overjoyed to locate
the polar star. I then knew that Scratching
River was due north. We drove slowly until we
came to a point where a man's track was visible
in the snow. We followed it. It led across the
river, and in the distance we finally espied a
light. It proved to be from a log cabin occupied
by a man who was engaged in getting out timber
for cart-wheels.

" We found the owner at home and told him of
our plight. He gave us a hearty welcome, and
his wife prepared us an excellent supper con-
sisting of fried venison and good bread baked
from flour imported from England by the Hud-

67

Sir Charles Tupper

son's Bay Company. The sugar also bore an
English trademark. The cabin did not contain
a chair or a table, but the obliging hostess spread
a piece of india matting on the floor to serve as
a tablecloth. It was the most novel feast I ever
attended. After breakfast in the morning we
were escorted out to the trail and presently were
speeding in the direction of Scratching River.

On to Fort Garry

" At sundown the next day we reached St.
Norbert. Driving up to the house I supposed
to be Father Richot's, I rapped on the door,
which was opened by two young ladies. They
proved to be Miss Riel, a sister of the half-breed
leader, and a Miss Macdougall. Both were very
accomplished. Miss MacdougalPs history, I after-
wards learned, was an interesting one. Her
father was a Scotchman. At the age of ten she
was taken from her Sioux mother and educated
by the nuns. A moment after my arrival, one
of the young women left the room to communicate
with the Mother Superior. She returned with the
message that Father Richot had gone to Fort
Garry, and the direction to provide myself and
my guide with supper.

" Later, Miss Riel conveyed to me another
message from the Mother Superior to the effect
that it was quite possible that Father Richot

68

The Trip to Fort Garry

might be detained at Fort Garry until the next
day. The good Sister, so Miss Kiel intimated,
was ready to forward at once any letter I might
choose to send. I at once asked for pen and
paper and wrote a letter to Riel, never intending,
however, to send it. So when the messenger
presently appeared I said in the most nonchalant
way : ' I guess I had better go myself instead of
sending a letter,' and suiting the action to the
word jumped into the rig with him, after asking
the young women to thank the Mother Superior
for her kind hospitality.

" We drove down the road along the east bank
of the Red River for a distance of nine miles,
until we reached the confluence of the Red and
Assiniboine Rivers. Then we crossed the frozen
surface of the Red River, and ascending the
Assiniboine, drove to the postern gate of Fort
Garry. My guide struck it three times with his
long whip, sung out the password, and the gate,
in response, was thrown open. He left me with
a guard while he went to announce my arrival.
When he returned I was escorted through a
number of different rooms to the council chamber.
This was no doubt a ruse on the part of the half-
breeds to give me a favourable impression of
jtheir strength. Every room was filled with half-
breeds wearing greatcoats. Their number, so
far as I could judge, was between two and

69

Sir Charles Tupper

three hundred. Every room had its stack of
piled arms.

Interview with Riel

" In the chamber to which I was finally con-
ducted, I found in session Kiel's council, con-
sisting of twelve of the wildest men I ever met.
Riel, Lemay, and Father Richot formed three of
the party.

" ' I am Dr. Tupper, an independent member
of the House of Commons,' I announced. ' I
came out here to take my daughter home. Her
husband's horses and carriage and their personal
effects have been taken from them. I came here
to ask you to restore their property.'

" c You must have met Captain Cameron's ser-
vant on your way here to-night, as I sent one of
my men with him to fetch the man who has the
carriage and team,' replied Riel in a not un-
friendly tone.

" ' I would not know Captain Cameron's servant
if I met him. I have never seen him,' I replied.

" ' If you go back to St. Norbert with the
man who brought you here and stay at his house,
I will give you my word that everything belong-
ing to your daughter will be there by four
o'clock to-morrow afternoon,' reassuringly de-
clared Riel. The rebel leader was then in his
early manhood. He spoke English quite fluently.

70

The Trip to Fort Garry

He had received his education at the Jesuit
college at Montreal.

" ' But,' I suggested, c can't I see the man
who has possession of these things, now that I
am here ? '

" ' No ! You had better follow my instruc-
tions,' sharply retorted Kiel.

" So I did not press the request, and avoiding
any reference to political matters I withdrew
with the guide and started back to St. Norbert.
A drive two miles beyond St. Norbert brought
us about midnight to the house of the man who
had Captain Cameron's carriage and horses.
We rapped him up, and the guide explained my
mission. We soon had the horses harnessed,
and away we drove back to the house of my
guide. He gave me a bed on the floor. It was
not until the next morning that I discovered
that I had slept on a mattress I had given my
daughter at Halifax. I did not mention the
matter to my host.

Conference with Father Richot

" At four o'clock the next afternoon arrived
sleds laden with my daughter's effects, and with
them was Father Richot, who offered me the
-hospitality of the glebe house. ' Father Richot,'
I said, ' I hope you don't suppose I came here to
put my neck in a halter for the sake of recover-

71

Sir Charles Tupper

ing my daughter's personal property. I came
to see you.' Then I told him that as we under-
stood each other very imperfectly, we had
better get an interpreter to discuss the situation.
He acquiesced, and we adjourned to the convent,
where we had a session occupying two or three
hours. Miss Macdougall acted as interpreter.

" It took some time to get him around to my
way of thinking. At the outset I pointed out
to him the uselessness of an armed force trying
to hold the country.

" ' I don't think Canada can take us,' declared
the priest in the early stages of our talk. ' We
can retire to the prairie, and if the worst comes
to the worst the United States will welcome this
territory into the Union.'

" ' You will find that the power of England
can reach here,' I warned him. ' Any filibuster-
ing expedition seeking to cross the line will be
seized by the American authorities, and the
United States, in any event, is in no shape to go
to war with any great Power.'

" After further talk I saw that he was begin-
ning to listen to reason. I strongly urged him
to use his influence to induce the half-breeds to
send a deputation to Ottawa to discuss their
grievances with the Government, assuring him
that they would be received, and that a settle-
ment, satisfactory to everybody, would be

72

The Trip to Fort Garry

effected. I also urged him to include himself
in the deputation before enjoining him to see
that no blood was shed in the meantime.

"One to die," but Schultz escaped

" ' One must die,' he insisted at first.

" ' And who is that ? ' I inquired.

" ' Dr. Schultz ' (afterwards Lieut. -Governor
of Manitoba), he replied.

" Then the priest went on to tell me that Dr.
Schultz had paid a half-breed $100 to shoot him.
' The hired assassin told me so,' explained Father
Richot. ' Twice has he come to my window at
night to shoot me down, but on both occasions
God had so paralysed his arm, that he could
not raise the rifle.' I then assured Father Richot
that the matter had better be left to the authori-
ties, and that if Dr. Schultz was subsequently found
guilty, the law would mete out proper punishment.

" At the time of my visit to Fort Garry,
Dr. Schultz was a prisoner there. He subse-
quently effected his escape, and in the depth of
winter, after unparalleled hardships, made his
way overland to Port Arthur and thence to
civilization via Duluth.

Again meets Riel

" We then adjourned to Father Richot 's
house, where I again met Louis Riel. I took

73

Sir Charles Tupper

good care not to discuss politics with him, but
conversed with him on other topics, finding
him intelligent and very well informed. I also
got the priest to engage a man and teams to
take out the personal effects of Captain and
Mrs. Cameron. My boy guide, Lemay — one of
Kiel's councillors — and I, started on ahead for
Pembina. Lemay urged haste, as he had been
advised by letter that his daughter at Pembina
was ill, and needed my medical services. I
drove south to the boundary-line with Captain
Cameron's horses.

" The result of my conference at St. Norbert
was that the half-breeds, twenty-four hours
after my departure, decided to begin negotia-
tions by permitting De Salaberry, one of the
Dominion Commissioners, to come in from Pem-
bina to join his colleague, Father Thibeault, who
had been virtually a prisoner in his own house
at Fort Garry. Soon after my visit to the
North-west, the half-breeds sent to Ottawa a
deputation of three persons, headed by Richot,
to negotiate terms with the Dominion Govern-
ment.

The Return — Lost in a Blizzard

" At Pembina I rejoined Captain and Mrs.
Cameron, and without any delay we got ready
for our long drive to St. Cloud, Minnesota, the

74

The, Trip to Fort Garry

end of the railway line. My guide, Solomon
Jeanvienne, engaged for me by Father Richot,
proved to be a splendid fellow. He knew the
country thoroughly and was a first-class cook.
He furnished two teams of ponies and two sleds,
on which we loaded the effects of my relatives,
as Captain Cameron disposed of his carriage and
team at Pembina. We made good time on our
way south.

" On the afternoon of the day before our party
reached Georgetown, Minnesota, a terrific bliz-
zard set in. The storm redoubled its fury after
we had pitched our tent. The weather was
bitterly cold, and we got little warmth from
the fire blazing outside.

" The next morning we were in doubt whether
to proceed or not. Jeanvienne urged us to re-
main, declaring that we might get lost on the
prairie, as the storm, which still raged, had
obliterated the trail ; this was also the counsel
of the mail courier, who with his team of five
dogs had camped with us all night. The mail
courier slept in the open, and when I looked
out of the tent in the morning all I could see was
a white mound, where the man lay huddled in
his buffalo robes.

" As my daughter was tempted with the pros-
pect of sleeping in a house that night, she in-
sisted on proceeding, despite the fact that the

75

Sir Charles Tupper

mail courier related that he had been compelled
to camp at this very spot for three weeks the
year before during a storm of unparalleled
violence. This man informed us that he had been
obliged to eat one of his dogs after his food
supplies were exhausted.

" We later repented yielding to my daughter's
whim, because the blizzard increased in fury as
we proceeded on our way, and we got off the
trail several times. It was a great relief when
we arrived at Georgetown that night after an
experience I should not care to repeat. Later,
we learned that five persons had perished during
that week while trying to reach the same point."

Discussed in House of Commons

During the debate on the Address at the
opening Session of the House of Commons,
Dr. Tupper made a reference to his recent trip
to Fort Garry. His observations respecting
the future of the North-west Territory showed
him to possess the vision of a far-seeing states-
man. He is quoted in " Hansard," the official
report, at that time not a verbatim one, under
date of February 18th, 1870, as having spoken
as follows :—

" As respects the North-west difficulty he
entertained the most sanguine expectations that
it would be speedily arranged most satisfactorily.

76

The Trip to Fort Garry

This opinion was based on what he had derived
from the visit he had been able to pay that
country only a few weeks previously. He had
the pleasure of passing some days within the
territory itself, and some weeks in a section of
country characterized by similar natural features
and resources ; and he must say that his opinion
of the capabilities of the country had been con-
siderably elevated.

" He had listened with great pain to the re-
marks that had fallen from the honourable
member from Terrebonne (Hon. Mr. Masson).
The position that that honourable gentleman
had assumed, with respect to that delicate
question, was untenable, and calculated to sacri-
fice the best interests of the Dominion. That
territory afforded a field of immigration that
could not be found in any other part of British
America.

"At an early date the House would have the
satisfaction of knowing that, by the annexation
of the North-west, they had not only strength-
ened the position of the British North American
Confederation, but opened up a country to energy
and enterprise which would bring incalculable
wealth to the Dominion. The remarks of the
honourable member for Terrebonne were calcu-
lated to paralyse the efforts of the Government
to settle the question in a manner most conducive

77

Sir Charles Tupper

to the public interests. Was he prepared to
thwart the progress of negotiations, that were
being conducted with a fair prospect of success,
by declaring that under no circumstances the
use of force would be justifiable ? When every
effort by conciliation had failed, then the au-
thority of the Crown must be vindicated.

Predicted Peaceable Solution

" Such observations as the honourable member
had made were calculated to engender mischief,
while the true spirit of statesmanship was shown
in the Address, to which reference had been made,
and that was, that the Government would
exhaust everything in the power of man in order
to obtain a peaceable and satisfactory solution
of the difficulty.

" He was proud to be able to say, after having
had an introduction to Riel in council at Fort
Garry, and discussed in the frankest manner
possible the whole question with some of his
principal advisers, that he believed the negotia-
tions now in progress would end in the peaceful
acquisition of the territory upon terms alike
satisfactory to the insurgents and advantageous
to the Dominion. He did not hesitate to admit
that his sympathies were largely excited, from
looking at the question from the same point of
view as the insurgents, and when he found how

78

The Trip to Fort Garry

grievously they had been misled, and how ill-
advised they had been. He had no doubt
whatever that when they found that the spirit
of the free Canadian Parliament would not
permit anything like injustice to govern in any
part of the Dominion, they would readily agree
to a satisfactory solution of the whole difficulty."

Bitter Debate — A Memorable Scene

The debate was a bitter one, as there was the
utmost freedom of discussion on one of the most
important and constructive periods of Canadian
history. Hon. Mr. Macdougall then and there
cast in his fortunes with the Opposition. He
declared that the success of his mission had been
deliberately prevented by certain influences in
the Government. There was a memorable scene
when he accused Hon. Joseph Howe of having
" knifed " him on the occasion of Howe's visit
to Fort Garry in the summer of 1869.

Other speakers included Sir John A. Mac-
donald, Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, Hon. Edward
Blake, Hon. Joseph Howe, Sir George E. Cartier,
Sir Hector Langevin, Hon. L. F. R. Masson, and
Mr. (afterwards Sir) Richard Cartwright and Mr.
(afterwards Sir) Mackenzie Bowell, Sir A. T. Gait
and Sir Francis Hincks. The debate was also all
the more memorable on account of the declara-
tion of Mr. Cartwright that he would no longer

79

Sir Charles Tupper

support the Government on account of the selec-
tion of Sir Francis Hincks as Minister of Finance.
" Hansard," of February 17th, 1870, says Mr.
Bo well " demanded that the charges against
Messrs. Howe and Langevin should be explained,
for if guilty of what they were accused, they
should be dismissed by their colleagues ; if they
supported them, they should all be driven from
office."

Government Survives Storm

The Government weathered the storm, and
early in the summer an expeditionary force under
command of Sir Garnet Wolseley was despatched
to the North-west via the Great Lakes and the
overland route via Lake of the Woods. Before
the troops reached Fort Garry, Riel and the
rebels had disappeared. Thus ended the so-
called rebellion, and after further negotiations
with Ottawa, certain rights and privileges were
guaranteed to the half-breeds. The machinery of
Government was set in motion, and a few years
later the first considerable influx of settlers to
Manitoba from the Eastern Provinces was fairly
under way.

It was the good fortune of Dr. Tupper, years
before his great public services received full
recognition at the hands of Her Majesty, Queen

80

The Trip to Fort Garry

Victoria, to have been identified with the pro-
gress and development of Western Canada. He
joined the Government in July, 1870, as President
of the Council, later taking the portfolio of Inland
Revenue. One of his first steps was to obtain
the enactment of a Weights and Measures Act,
standardizing everything throughout the Do-
minion. Afterwards, as Minister of Customs, he
also drafted a stringent prohibitory liquor law
for the North-west. So successfully was it en-
forced by the Mounted Police, that Lord Dufferin,
a former Governor- General, on returning from a
western tour, laughingly assured Dr. Tupper that
the only beverage the vice-regal party was able
to secure at a public banquet was " a brand
of pain-killer."

81

i

V

BRITISH COLUMBIA

motives that impelled Sir John
A. Macdonald and his colleagues at
Ottawa to round off Confederation by
the addition of British Columbia, after the North-
west Territories had been acquired from the
Hudson's Bay Company, were based on national
as well as Imperial considerations.

This is made quite clear by Sir Charles Tupper
in the following reminiscences. As the right-
hand man and chief adviser of the great Premier,
his wise counsels in the early seventies were
inspired by the same spirit which prompted him
in a public address at St. John, New Brunswick,
in 1860, to advocate a federal union of British
North America.

" What would have been the fate of British
Columbia if it had remained isolated from
Eastern Canada by an unexplored ' sea of
mountains ' and vast uninhabited prairies ? " I
asked.

To this question Sir Charles replied that it

82

British Columbia

would have inevitably resulted in the absorption
of the Crown colony on the Pacific coast by the
United States. Social and economic forces were
working in that direction from the date of the
discovery of gold in 1856. Thousands of adven-
turous American citizens flocked to British
Columbia, and between the two countries there
was a good deal of inter-communication by land
and sea. Sir James Douglas, an ex-governor, a
prominent figure in the early days of the colony,
was opposed to Confederation.

Until his eleventh-hour conversion, ex-Gover-
nor Seymour entertained similar views. The ap-
pointment of Anthony Musgrave, a pro-union
man, in 1869, came at a psychological moment
when the Imperial authorities in London were
giving ardent support to the cause dearest to
the hearts of Canadian statesmen.

The Great Inducement

The offer of the Dominion Government to
build a railway from the head of the Great Lakes
to the Pacific coast was the chief inducement
that settled the political destiny of British
Columbia. Sir Charles Tupper, in his own
luminous way, related the story of the great
difficulties encountered, and the obstacles over-
come in carrying out that gigantic and epoch-
making project. He spoke with characteristic

83

Sir Charles Tupper

modesty of the leading role he played in linking
up Canada from ocean to ocean. As Minister
of Railways he originated and persuaded his
colleagues, and later, Parliament, to approve
and adopt the agreement under which the trans-
continental railway was subsequently built.

Canada's " Grand Old Man " disclosed an his-
torical fact hitherto unpublished when he stated
that his first overtures to undertake the con-
struction of the line were made in London to
the Grand Trunk Railway Company. The aged
ex-Premier recalled every incident, personage,
day and date, without consulting a note.

Back to Early Period

" The Government of Canada, having been
successful in acquiring the North-west Territory,
felt that the completion of Confederation, both
for national and Imperial considerations, in-
volved the addition of British Columbia," said
Sir Charles. " Sir John A. Macdonald's views in
regard to the wisdom of this step were shared
just as strongly by every one of his colleagues.
They realized that a federation, to be effective
for a young nation, must represent a union ex-
tending from sea to sea.

" At that period we were also hopeful of in-
cluding Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.
Newfoundland is still ' out in the cold ' after

84

British Columbia

the lapse of nearly half a century, despite the
efforts made by Sir John Macdonald's Govern-
ment, but I am hopeful ere long that the colony
will become part of Canada. Prince Edward
Island, after a good deal of hesitancy and un-
certainty from the days of the historic conference
at Charlottetown in 1866, came into the union
in 1873, a year after the parliamentary repre-
sentatives of British Columbia had taken their
seats at Ottawa.

" It would have been impossible to retain
British Columbia as a Crown colony if overtures
in favour of union had not been made by the
Dominion. How could it have been expected to
remain British when it had no community of
interest with the rest of Canada, from which its
people were separated by two ranges of moun-
tains and the vast prairies ? Under the existing
circumstances it had no means of advancement
except by throwing in its lot with the great
nation to the south, with which it had constant
communication both by land and sea.

" We all felt that we were bound to make the
hazard of incurring the large outlay for a trans-
continental railway if Confederation from coast
to coast was to be made a reality and if the
sovereignty of Britain was to be retained. Ac-
cordingly, negotiations looking to the admission
of British Columbia were started in real earnest

85

Sir Charles Tupper

about the end of 1869. Although sentiment in
Vancouver Island, on the whole, was unfavour-
able to Confederation, the entire mainland, in-
cluding Cariboo, then an important factor, was
practically a unit in its favour. Old-time ele-
ments, represented by Sir James Douglas, ex-
Governor Seymour and other prominent men,
were in opposition.

What Silenced Opposition

" The most potent of all the arguments for
union was the promise it held out of promoting
overland communication with Eastern Canada.
This it was, according to a statement in the
c Life of Sir James Douglas,' that finally silenced
the opposition of Seymour. In any event, the
death of Seymour in 1869 led to the appoint-
ment of an avowed advocate of Confederation —
Anthony Musgrave, previously Governor of New-
foundland, and possessing an experience of ad-
ministration gained in the West Indies. A tour
of the colony which the new Governor immedi-
ately undertook, confirmed the view that the
overwhelming sentiment of the population was
in favour of Confederation. In addition came
formal instructions from England that the Gover-
nor should take such steps, as he properly and
constitutionally could, either in conjunction
with the Governor- General of Canada or other-

86

British Columbia

wise, to promote the favourable consideration of
the question.

" When the Legislative Council of the colony
met in the Session of 1870, Musgrave had a series
of resolutions prepared for its consideration. In
a memorable debate, which the records show
began on March 9th, 1870, and lasted until the
twenty-fifth of the same month, the terms on
which British Columbia should become a part
of the Dominion were definitely formulated.

" The delegation sent down to Ottawa to com-
plete the negotiations already under way, con-
sisted of Messrs. Trutch (afterwards Sir Joseph),
Dr. J. S. Helmcken and Dr. Carrall. In the
terms formulated by British Columbia, there was
no provision for responsible government ; in fact,
a clause which it was attempted to insert by
certain members of the council, was defeated by
a majority vote of that body. The late Hon.
John Robson, the late Mr. H. E. Seelye, and
Mr. D. W. Higgins, held a conference and decided
that in order to secure parliamentary govern-
ment it would be necessary for one of their num-
ber to proceed to Ottawa and inform the Govern-
ment there that unless responsible government
was assured they would oppose the adoption of
the terms altogether, and thus delay Confedera-
tion.

" Mr. Seelye was selected as the delegate. He

87

Sir Charles Tupper

succeeded in convincing the Dominion Govern-
ment that his contention that the province was
sufficiently advanced to entitle it to representa-
tive institutions was correct. When the terms
came back they contained a clause to that effect,
and upon those lines the provincial government
has ever since been administered.

Its Last Session

" The Provincial Legislative Council, which
was partly appointive, passed the terms of union
with Canada in January, 1871. It was its last
Session, giving way in the following year to a
provincial legislature. The terms of union were
embodied in an enactment which passed the
Dominion Parliament, after a four days' debate,
on April 1, 1871. The Confederation Act of
1867 provided all the machinery for admitting
Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, the North-
west and British Columbia.

" The main provisions upon which the Pacific
coast province entered the union ensured in the
first place that the Dominion should assume all
debts and liabilities of the colony as well as to
undertake to build a railway from the head of
the Great Lakes to the Pacific coast within ten
years, and to start actual railway construction
within two years after the date of union. The
idea of an all-rail route direct to Eastern Canada

88

British Columbia

from British Columbia did not take shape until
about 1880, as it was thought that the needs of
the situation could be met by providing steam-
boat communication between the head of the
Great Lakes and the settled portions of Ontario.

" At that time there did not exist any road
worthy of the name of highway across Southern
British Columbia, to the vast and lonely prairies.
It is true that the Hudson's Bay Company had
its own trails through the northern and central
sections of the province, but only for the purpose
of packing in supplies or shipping out the fur
catch. Of commerce in the ordinary sense there
was none. Ordinary communication between
British Columbia and Eastern Canada in those
days had to be conducted via San Francisco or
the Isthmus of Panama.

" First among the early explorers that crossed
the prairies to the coast was Simon Fraser,
who reached the mouth of the Fraser River,
named after him, in 1808. The next explorers of
note to accomplish the same feat were Dr.
Cheadle and Lord Milton, M.P. They made the
overland trip in 1862-64. During the ensuing
ten years the explorers included such well-
known men as Mr. (now Sir) Sandford Fleming,
Walter Moberley, Professor Macoun and Dr.
Bell of the Dominion geological survey ; and
Captain Butler, a British Army officer ; H. J.

89

Sir Charles Tupper

Gamble, C. F. Harrington, and T. H. White.
Mr. Sandford Fleming, as chief engineer of the
proposed transcontinental railway, entered the
field seeking for a favourable route as early as
1871. In the following year he made, in company
of the late Principal Grant of Queen's University,
an overland trip between Fort Garry and the
Pacific coast.

Terms Opposed by Liberal Party

" The Confederation terms, especially the
clause agreeing to the construction of the railway,
were bitterly opposed by the Liberal party.
Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, leader of the Oppo-
sition, denounced the railway project as an
impracticable one, far beyond the ability and
resources of the Dominion to successfully carry
out. His followers, without exception, declared
that it would result in the ruin of the country,
and adversely criticized the other features, in-
cluding the provision for awarding a contract
to a public chartered company incorporated by
the same Act of Parliament. Sir Hugh Allan
and his associates, among whom were a number
of Americans, were anxious to enter into a con-
tract to build the line from the head of the
Great Lakes to the Pacific coast.

" Well, the result was that we went to the
country in 1872, in the first General Election

90

British Columbia

since Confederation, charged by the Opposition
with undertaking the impossible. In the sharp
and bitter campaign which followed, the Liberals
created a good deal of alarm among the elector-
ate, especially in Ontario and Quebec.

" The result was that Sir John A. Macdonald
was returned to power by a greatly reduced
majority. That he was not defeated was due
to the sentiment created in Nova Scotia by
bringing Hon. Joseph Howe into the Government
in 1869, and myself in 1870. We carried every
seat in the province. Mr. Church of Lunenberg
being the only independent supporter, Howe and
I were elected by acclamation. Those were the
days of open voting.

" Sir George E. Cartier, the leader of the French-
Canadian Conservatives, went down to defeat.
He subsequently was elected for a Manitoba
seat, but never sat in the House again. Failing
health prompted him to proceed to England to
consult a physician, and there he died in 1873.
Cartier had a lovable personality, and was a man
of great ability and influence in Parliament,
where his loss was intensely felt.

"The Pacific 'Slander'"

" Events moved with sudden and dramatic
swiftness during the Session of 1873. Hon. L. S.
Huntingdon, a Liberal, formulated charges to

91

Sir Charles Tupper

the effect that Sir John and Cartier had received
large sums of money from Sir Hugh Allan to
carry the recent election. This is what is known
as the 'Pacific Scandal,' but it can be better
described as the ' Pacific Slander,' the appellation
I gave it in one of the hottest debates in which I
ever participated. The Opposition alleged that the
money had been used to corrupt the electorate,
and that Sir Hugh Allan was to be rewarded by
securing for his company a contract for the build-
ing of the proposed railway to British Columbia.

" Without going now into details of that historic
affair — for it is a large subject in regard to which
many misconceptions exist — I can only say that
during the debate Sir John lost so many sup-
porters that he tendered his resignation and gave
way to Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, whose minis-
try included a number of our former supporters,
seduced from party loyalty by contracts and
Government positions and the bribe of port-
folios. The Liberals sprung the General Elec-
tions in 1874 and swept the country from end
to end. Everybody seemed to think that Sir
John A. Macdonald and the Conservative party
would never recover from the effects of the so-
called ' Pacific Scandal,' and that the Liberals
were destined to hold the Treasury benches in
perpetuity.

" But just the very opposite happened. Soon

92

From an autographed photograph presented to W. A. Harkin, 1913

p. 92

British Columbia

after the great Liberal victory, a reaction in
favour of the Conservatives set in throughout
the country, greatly aided by the blundering
incapacity of the Mackenzie Government, and
the real facts connected with the c Pacific Slander '
becoming known.

Bye-elections and election trials enabled us
to reduce the Liberal majority by nearly fifty
per cent, and when Mackenzie appealed to the
country in 1878, we swept it from end to end
with our National Policy. Sir John then found
himself on the Treasury benches with a majority
of about eighty members.

"Carnarvon Terms or Separation"

" Exploratory surveys in search of a suitable
route for the proposed railway were continued
by Mr. Fleming after the advent of the Liberals
to power. The Crow's Nest Pass route, although
known to exist, was not regarded with favour,
as it was considered inadvisable to build a line
too close to the international boundary, and
the Kicking Horse Pass route, subsequently
adopted by the C.P.R., had not yet been dis-
covered.

" The consenus of opinion favoured the adop-
tion of the Yellowhead Pass as the point of entry
into British Columbia. The question arose as
to the most suitable route from that point west-

93

Sir Charles Tupper

ward to the coast. In 1873, and for the next
three or four years, various instrumental surveys
were run from the coast eastward to meet other
parties working westward from Yellowhead Pass.
These routes included one from Port Simpson,
twenty-seven miles north of the new city of
Prince Rupert ; Bute Inlet, Howe Sound and
from Burrard Inlet up the Fraser River to Kam-
loops and thence up the North Thompson, the
identical route of the Canadian Northern Railway
now under construction. The first-mentioned
route is that which was adopted by the Grand
Trunk Pacific Railway. For a time it looked as
though the new Government favoured a line
from Yellowhead Pass to Bute Inlet, that would
bridge the Seymour Narrows and thence extend
along the east coast of Vancouver Island to a
western terminus at Victoria.

" The delay in starting construction and in
carrying out other terms of the Confederation
pact aroused considerable ill-feeling in British
Columbia. This led the Mackenzie Government
to despatch the late Hon. J. D. Edgar (afterwards
Sir James Edgar) to the coast in 1874 with the
object of effecting a compromise. His mission
did not prove very successful, and later in the
same year a settlement was effected by Lord
Carnarvon, the then Secretary of State for the
Colonies, to whom the matter had been referred

94

British Columbia

for arbitration. This settlement is now known
as the Carnarvon terms. Mr. Mackenzie gave
way to Sir John A. Macdonald's administration
in 1878 without having built one mile of railway
in British Columbia.

" That bitter feeling existed in British Columbia
over the delays is evidenced by an episode that
occurred during the visit of Lord Dufferin,
Governor-General, in August, 1876. One of the
arches along the line of route His Excellency
was to follow during the official reception in
Victoria, bore this inscription : ' Carnarvon
Terms or Separation.' Hearing of it the Governor-
General declined to pass under the arch unless
the wording was altered. His Excellency sug-
gested that the substitution of one letter for
another in the inscription would meet his wishes.
He suggested that it should read ' Carnarvon
Terms or Reparation.'

British Columbia's Great Destiny

" British Columbia is one of the richest, if not
the richest province, in the Dominion. It is on
the threshold of a destiny unparalleled in its
magnificence. With its salubrious climate and
enormous resources, embracing soil, minerals,
coal, water-powers, fisheries and forest wealth,
no limit can be set to its possibilities. It is a
young man's country, and the rewards for

95

Sir Charles Tupper

industry and enterprise will be well worth
striving for."

And the eyes of the venerable Father of Con-
federation lighted up with something of their
old fire as he added :—

" There will be millions of people here yet.
You will not find any spare ground between
Vancouver and New Westminster. It will all
be built up into one solid city. The opening of
the Panama Canal will have a momentous
effect upon the development of British Columbia
generally."

96

VI

H

RAILWAY POLICY

Sir Charles as Railway Minister

AVING been the chief critic of Mr.
Mackenzie's railway policy during
our five years in Opposition, Sir
John A. Macdonald, in forming his Cabinet in
1878, tendered me the portfolio of Railways and
Canals, and assigned to me the chief task of
inaugurating a vigorous policy in regard to the
building of the line from the head of the Great
Lakes to the Pacific coast. While the Liberals
had not done anything in British Columbia, they
had placed under contract some hundreds of
miles from Port Arthur westward, and from
Selkirk eastward. Mr. Mackenzie's policy was
to place steamboats on the intermediate water-
stretches through the Lake of the Woods, his
vision not grasping the necessity of connecting
the prairies with the head of the Great Lakes by
an all-rail line. The Conservative party, it must
be conceded, possessed more progressive ideas.
H 97

Sir Charles Tupper

The new Government at once decided to link up
the gap by a railroad, and lost no time in award-
ing contracts for over 200 miles to provide an
all-rail line from Port Arthur to the Red River.

" In regard to the western portion of the line
between Winnipeg and the coast, two years
elapsed before the Government could revise the
Mackenzie surveys so as to determine upon the
most favourable route. Early in 1880, after get-
ting the results of the various revised surveys
and other data, I concluded that the best route
was that previously located by the Mackenzie
Government, from Yellowhead Pass via the North
Thompson River to Kamloops, and thence by
the main Thompson and Fraser rivers to Port
Moody, the nearest deep-water port on the
Pacific.

" My report to the council was adopted, and
soon afterwards I awarded to Mr. Andrew Onder-
donk, an American, contracts for building the
line from Yale to Savonas, near Kamloops, for
about $8,000,000, and later let the work from
Yale to Port Moody. Thousands of Chinese
flocked to British Columbia to find employment
on the railway.

" My idea in awarding a contract at the out-
set for the work between Yale and Kamloops was
because it was the heaviest and most difficult
section, and its early completion meant the

98

Railway Policy

breaking of the backbone of the undertaking.
Yale, being at the head of navigation on the
Fraser, was a convenient base for the distribu-
tion of supplies and material.

Not the Canada of To-day

" I have been criticized for my action in locat-
ing the official terminus at Port Moody instead
of then extending the line farther westward to
the site of the city of Vancouver. Well, all I have
to say in reply is that the Canada of 1880 was
not the prosperous, wealthy and well-populated
Dominion that exists to-day. Our only idea
was to get to the nearest point on tidewater
affording deep water for shipping, and this Port
Moody was found to possess in every respect.
The people of Eastern Canada were paying the
bill, and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company
had not even been organized or incorporated.
It was no concern of mine if the company at a
later date, of its own volition and at its own
expense, undertook to run their line further
westward to Burrard Inlet, thereby laying the
foundations of this great city.

" Our railway policy was received with en-
thusiasm in British Columbia. It also bore fruit
in Manitoba, which was even then attracting
considerable numbers of settlers from the older
provinces. One of my first acts as head of my

99

Sir Charles Tupper

department was to change the route adopted by
the Mackenzie Government. The plans of the
Liberals did not provide for the railway touch-
ing at Winnipeg. Mr. Mackenzie selected Sel-
kirk as the point whence the main line would
strike west across the prairies. I considered it
unfair to isolate a town of the growing import-
ance of Winnipeg.

"Means Ruin," said Blake

" In the first parliamentary Session of 1880,
after Onderdonk had got his contract well under
way, Hon. Edward Blake introduced a resolu-
tion in favour of stopping all work west of the
Rockies. In a vigorous denunciation of the rail-
way policy, he declared that the country was
threatened with ruin, for the sake of twelve
thousand white people out in British Columbia.
His resolution was defeated, although every
member of the Opposition, including Hon. Alex-
ander Mackenzie and Hon. (Sir) Wilfrid Laurier,
gave it their support.

" When the House rose, Sir John A. Macdonald,
who was also Minister of the Interior, observed
in council that he had made up his mind that a
system of local railways was needed in the North-
west in order to attract immigration. He pro-
posed to bonus them with land grants. He spoke
of his intention of going to England that summer

100

Railway Policy

for the purpose of enlisting capital in the pro-
ject. c I wish you all to meet me here this day
week with any suggestions or advice you can
offer,' was his injunction to his colleagues.

" ' Sir John,' I replied, ' I think the time has
come when we must take an advance step. I
want to submit a proposition for building a
through line from Nipissing in Ontario to the
Pacific coast.'

" ' I'm afraid, Tupper, that's a rather large
order. However, I shall be pleased to consider
anything you have to submit,' was his genial
comment.

Tapper's Proposal

" On the appointed day I presented my report
to council. It gave estimates and every other
detail. My proposition, in brief, recommended
that a contract be entered into with a responsible
company for the completion of a transcontinental
railway on these terms : —

" The company to build, own, and operate a
line from Nipissing, Ontario, around north shore
of Lake Superior to Port Arthur ; and from
Winnipeg west to Kamloops, in return for the
following : —

" The Government to complete and hand over
to the company the line between Port Arthur
and Winnipeg and the line from Kamloops to

101

Sir Charles Tupper

Port Moody, and a branch line already com-
pleted from Emerson to Winnipeg; also a cash
bonus of $25,000,000 and 25,000,000 acres of
land.

" The mileage built and then under construc-
tion by the Government was about 700 miles.
My estimate of the cost of the mileage to be
handed over was $32,000,000, and I recom-
mended that the time limit for the completion
of the road by the company be ten years. I gave
reasons for my belief that the undertaking could
be carried to a successful conclusion, and that
strong men could be induced to take hold of the
enterprise.

" ' I heartily agree with you,' declared Sir
John in the whole-souled generous spirit that
always characterized him, after I had concluded
my remarks in favour of a through line, to be
built, owned and operated by a chartered com-
pany. Our colleagues concurred, and the report
was unanimously adopted.

Interesting British Capital

" Shortly afterwards Sir John, Hon. John
Henry Pope and I went to England with the
object of inducing financiers to interest them-
selves in organizing a company to build the rail-
way. We were accompanied by Mr. George
Stephen (Lord Mountstephen) and Mr. Duncan

102

FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM SIR CHARLES TUPPER TO W. A. HARKIN

p. 102

Railway Policy

Maclntyre of Montreal. Mr. Maclntyre was then
engaged in building a line subsidized by the
Government through the upper Ottawa valley
to Nipissing. As the line was regarded as likely
to form a link in the proposed through line, Mr.
Maclntyre hoped to join forces with any com-
bination of British moneyed men that might be-
come interested in the larger railway enterprise.
His theory, as later events showed, proved to
be correct.

" British financiers did not display any frenzied
haste to engage in railway building across the
continent. Sir John, soon after landing in Eng-
land, authorized me to sound Sir Henry Tyler,
President of the Grand Trunk Railway Company,
in the hope that his board might be induced to
favourably consider our proposition. I did so.
' If you omit the clause providing for the build-
ing of a line around the north shore of Lake
Superior to Eastern Canada, I shall be pleased
to lay the matter before my board of directors.
Otherwise they would throw it into the waste-
paper basket,' was Sir Henry's ultimatum.

" ' We must have a through line,' I assured him
in parting. Sir John, Pope and myself then
looked elsewhere for capital. Ten years later,
in the General Elections of 1891, Sir Henry
Tyler instigated an uncalled-for and deliberate
attempt to defeat Sir John A. Macdonald by

103

Sir Charles Tupper

bringing to bear against the Conservative party
all the power and influence of the Grand Trunk
Railway Company, and also sought to unfairly
influence their employees. I made a public
accusation against the company on the day on
which the poll was declared in Amherst after
the election, and this evoked a general denial
from him in the London ' Times.' I replied,
and the controversy raged for some time. I
challenged him to meet me before his board of
directors to whom I was prepared to submit the
proof, but he declined. The Grand Trunk Rail-
way board subsequently retired Sir Henry.

The Original Syndicate

" But to revert to our mission to London in
1880. We entered into an agreement with a
number of capitalists, who later became known
as the Canadian Pacific Railway Syndicate, to
build the transcontinental railway on the precise
basis of my report and recommendations to the
Government. The agreement was signed in
October. The members of the original syndicate
were Mr. George Stephen (now Lord Mount-
stephen), a Montreal financier ; Mr. Duncan
Maclntyre, Sir John Rose, a former Canadian
Minister of Finance ; Mr. Kennedy, a New York
banker ; Mr. Donald A. Smith (now Lord
Strathcona), and Baron Reinach of Paris. The

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Railway Policy

names of Mr. Smith and Mr. J. J. Hill, however,
did not appear, their interest being held by other
parties. At a later date Mr. Smith's connection
with the syndicate and the company afterwards
organized was made public.

" This followed a reconciliation with Sir John
A. Macdonald, from whom he had been estranged
since the Session of 1873. Mr. Hill did not long
remain a member of the syndicate. He with-
drew to devote himself to building the Great
Northern Railway. Baron Reinach was a well-
known French financier. He afterwards com-
mitted suicide, in Paris, in connection with the
affairs of the Panama Canal Company.

" On our return to Canada in the fall, Parlia-
ment was called, the chief business being the
submission of the contract between the Govern-
ment and the Canadian Pacific Railway. At a
party caucus held before the debate started, a
number of the Government supporters expressed
the opinion that the country was proposing to
assume greater obligations than it could bear.
I gave very detailed explanations to show that
these fears were groundless. I concluded my
address by declaring that while I did not pretend
to be a prophet, or the son of a prophet, I felt
confident they would all live to see the Canadian
Pacific Railway contract become the strongest
plank in the Conservative platform. The Op-

105

Sir Charles Tupper

position, led by Hon. Edward Blake, fiercely
assailed the contract, taking the view that if
approved the Dominion would be ruined.

Blake Against, Tupper For

" When the House adjourned for the Christ-
mas holidays after a prolonged debate, Mr. Blake
carried the war into the country and addressed
large public meetings at London (Ontario), Tor-
onto and Montreal. He denounced the Govern-
ment in unmeasured terms for having the temerity
to ask Parliament to approve of so iniquitous a
contract. As soon as I learned his intentions I
wrote him asking permission to permit me to
appear on the same platform, as I considered it
would be more interesting to let the people hear
both sides of the case. Mr. Blake, with some
reason, I must admit, replied that he could not
consent to my suggested arrangement, as the
subject was so vast a one that he would need the
whole evening to do justice to it.

" Then I requested our friends to publicly
announce at each of Mr. Blake's meetings that I
would appear in the same hall on the following
night to give my views of the Canadian Pacific
Railway contract then before Parliament. I
probably had an unfair advantage, as I had his
speeches in my hands a few hours after they
were delivered, and was thus able to deal with

106

Railway Policy

his arguments seriatim. Sir John Abbott, in
complimenting me on my Montreal speech, de-
clared that he never fully realized before the
influence of the human tongue. He stated that
when the meeting opened one-third of the audi-
ence was friendly, one-third was neutral, and
one-third was hostile, and that when I concluded
speaking, one-third was friendlier than ever, a
third was converted, and the other third was
silenced," continued Sir Charles, smiling as he
recalled the incident.

Bill Carried, Majority 76

" Well, the debate was resumed in Parliament
after the holidays, nearly every member of the
Opposition going on record in their speeches
against the Bill, which, however, was carried by
a majority of 76. There wasn't a single vote lost
on the Government side.

" Thus was laid the foundation of the great
Canadian Pacific Railway, which actually paid
working expenses from the date of its comple-
tion. The present pre-eminence of that corpora-
tion is a household word throughout the world.
Even so shrewd an observer as Sir Sandford
Fleming once felt constrained to declare that the
line could not be made to pay operating charges
until the North-west had a population of two
million people. History will justify the wisdom

107

Sir Charles Tupper

of Sir John's Government and the Conservative
party in having abounding hope and confidence
in the future of the Dominion.

" The next year witnessed the most pheno-
menal activity in railway construction on the
Government sections and on the portion the
Canadian Pacific Railway Company had pledged
itself to construct. This state of affairs virtually
continued until the driving of the last spike by
Sir Donald A. Smith (Lord Strathcona), at Craig-
allachie, B.C., on November 6th, 1885, when the
first overland train from the east passed over
the line to the Pacific coast. The line was opened
for traffic in the following spring.

" My first official trip of inspection to British
Columbia was made in August and September,
1881. The journey was made by rail across the
continent to San Francisco and thence by steamer
to Victoria. My party, in addition to Lady Tup-
per and Col. and Mrs. Clarke, of Halifax, included
Mr. Andrew Robertson, Montreal ; Hon. Dr.
Parker, Halifax ; and Mr. Collingwood Schreiber,
Government chief engineer of railways. En
passant I am glad to note that Mr. Schreiber,
although in his eighties, is still active and vigor-
ous, performing similar service in connection with
the building of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway.
He is a valuable public servant, an engineer of
great ability, a high-minded man, and in all my

108

Railway Policy

career I never met an individual gifted with so
great a love of or capacity for work.

Satisfied All as to Route

" We proceeded from Victoria to Nanaimo,
then visited Capt. Raymur's saw-mill on the water
front of the then unborn city of Vancouver.
There was then only one house in Vancouver.
It was occupied by the manager of the mill.
Port Moody and New Westminster were visited
before going by steamboat to Yale, the base for
railway construction eastward along the Fraser.
I rode on horseback from Raymur's Mill to
New Westminster. It was a track through the
woods.

" My reception was very cordial, and I was the
guest of honour at a number of public banquets.
I found some ill-feeling existing at Victoria over
the action of the Government in making the
western terminus at Port Moody, instead of at
Victoria, as had been originally projected in
Mackenzie's earlier scheme for a railway down
Bute Inlet, across Seymour Narrows and along
the east coast to Vancouver Island to Victoria.
In a public speech I convinced them that the
advantages were all in favour of a direct line to
Burrard Inlet.

" At Nanaimo, the mayor and council presented
me with an address of welcome, and Mr. Bun-

109

Sir Charles Tupper

ster, M.P., took advantage of the occasion to
attack the Government for not carrying out
Mackenzie's promise, to construct a railway
from Nanaimo to Victoria. In my reply I paid
my respects to Mr. Bunster, much to the amuse-
ment of the audience, advising the people that
they might have better luck if they exercised
more prudence in the selection of their repre-
sentative. And so they did at the next election,"
again laughed the veteran statesman.

" As a matter of fact, the trip of Mr. Andrew
Robertson, at that time a Montreal merchant
prince, was made at the request of the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company to report on the advis-
ability of that company undertaking the construc-
tion of a railway between Nanaimo and Victoria.
Mr. Robertson reported in favour of the proposi-
tion, but the company, having its hands fully
occupied elsewhere at that period, did not take
any action, and later the road was built by Hon.
Robert Dunsmuir, aided by the assistance of the
provincial and Dominion Governments. That
same line, after a quarter of a century had elapsed,
passed into the control of the Canadian Pacific
Railway Company.

" Our trip inland from Yale to Kamloops, in-
specting the railway construction work then in
progress, was a novel and delightful experience.

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Railway Policy

The route as far as Lytton was along the famous
Cariboo waggon road, our chief driver being Mr.
Steve Tingley, then famous as a whip. Members
of the party occupied the same stage coach used
by Lord Dufferin in an earlier trip. Tingley
hails from New Brunswick, and very glad was
I recently to learn that he is still alive and well.

Inspected Line in Middle West

" Our party returned to Victoria, took steamer
to San Francisco, where I was received and enter-
tained by the Canadian colony, before proceeding
to Winnipeg, where railway matters again occu-
pied my attention. I then inspected the main
line eastward 130 miles, and westward as far as
Brandon, then a town just six weeks old. Con-
struction by the company was meantime being
pushed westward across the prairies.

" At that time the Government, at the request
of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, had
induced Parliament to consent to modifications
in the route. It had been settled that the road,
instead of taking the Yellowhead Pass route,
should take a more direct course via Bow River
and the Kicking Horse Pass, and thence in as
direct a line as possible to a junction with the
Government section near Kamloops. A tunnel
through the Rockies was even then talked of,

111

Sir Charles Tupper

but this work proved to be impracticable owing
to the enormous expenditure involved.

" At a later period the Canadian Pacific Rail-
way Company desired the Government to extend
the line from Port Moody to Burrard Inlet, at
the expense of the Government. Its request
was refused, as I advised that we had carried
out our contract in building to the tidewater,
affording good facilities for steamers, and that
if the road were to be extended it would
have to be done at the expense of the company.
This, of course, was done later by the railway
itself.

" I went to England in 1883, to fill the posi-
tion of High Commissioner for Canada, Hon.
John Henry Pope being acting Minister of Rail-
ways and Canals during my absence from the
Dominion. I still retained my seat in the
Cabinet. Meantime the Canadian Pacific Rail-
way was being extended across the continent
at a rate of speed never previously attempted
anywhere, and probably not surpassed since. This
rapid progress was largely due to the marvel-
lous constructive genius of Mr. (Sir) W. C. Van
Home, the general manager.

Tribute to the Builders

" No problem that ever arose, even that of
conquering the Rockies and Selkirks, had any

112

Railway Policy

terrors for Van Home. As commander-in-chief
he won a world-wide reputation, and was assisted
by many able lieutenants, including Mr. (Sir)
Thomas Shaughnessy, Mr. Harry Abbott and
Mr. R. Marpole. Other notable figures promi-
nently connected with the construction work as
contractors or otherwise, were Mr. James Ross,
of Montreal ; Messrs. (Sir) William Mackenzie,
(Sir) Donald D. Mann, Mr. H. S. Holt, of Mon-
treal, and last but not least, Mr. T. G. Holt, Mr.
H. J. Cambie and Mr. T. H. White, of Vancouver.
" Sir Thomas Shaughnessy began his Canadian
railway career with the Canadian Pacific Railway
Company as purchasing agent, in the early
eighties. His rise to the position of president of
that company was due to sheer merit and ability.
He has a forceful personality, is gifted with great
administrative ability, and to-day directs the
vast operations of the greatest railway emterprise
in the world. The building of the Canadian
Pacific Railway by a population of about four
million people was no ordinary undertaking.
When the United States, with a population of
forty million, linked Omaha with the Pacific
coast by a direct rail, it was heralded as a stupen-
dous achievement. In opposing the railway
policy of the Conservative party, one of the
stock arguments of the late Hon. Alexander
Mackenzie was to quote (Sir) Sandford Fleming,
i 113

Sir Charles Tupper

first chief engineer of surveys, to the effect that
an all-Canadian line could not possibly pay
until the North-west had a population of two
million people.

" The year 1884 was a critical one in the his-
tory of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.
Committed to enormous expenditures during
the preceding three years owing to the magni-
tude of the work, its directors had got to the end
of their tether. They could not raise any more
money in London, where the Grand Trunk
Railway Company then exerted a considerable
influence. The same fate met them in New
York, owing, it is alleged, to the hostile attitude
of the Northern Pacific Railway, and Mr. J. J.
Hill, then engaged in financing and building
the Great Northern Railway.

" I had gone to Birmingham to propose a vote
of thanks for an address on Canada to be deliv-
ered by the Marquis of Lome, a former Governor-
General. Lord Norton, the Under-Secretary of
State for the Colonies when federation was
carried, presided, and it had been arranged that
I was to spend a holiday with him at his country
seat at Hams. In the midst of the lecture I
received a cable from Mr. Pope, acting Minister
of Railways, informing me that the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company was in financial diffi-
culties, and urging me to return home at once.

114

Railway Policy

At that time I was acting High Commissioner
and still held the portfolio of Railways and
Canals.

Proposed Loan of Thirty Million

" I crossed on the first steamer, and on reach-
ing Ottawa found everybody in despair. My
first act was to send for Mr. Miall, an expert
accountant in the Government service, and
Mr. Collingwood Schreiber, Government chief
engineer, and instruct them to proceed to Mon-
treal to examine the books of the railway com-
pany. As soon as they had reported, I recom-
mended that Parliament be asked to authorize
the Government to advance the Canadian Pacific
Railway Company $30,000,000, for four years
at 4 per cent per annum, on condition that the
company agreed to finish the road five years
sooner than the contract called for, namely,
1886 instead of 1891. In Parliament I advocated
the granting of the loan on that ground.

" ' Don't call it a loan. You know we will
never see a penny of the money again,' interjected
Mr. Blake across the floor in denouncing the
measure. The Opposition gave him its solid
support, but the Government carried the day,
the Canadian Pacific Railway was practically
completed in November, 1885, well within the
prescribed time, and, better still, the loan,

115

Sir Charles Tupper

with interest at 4 per cent, was repaid when
due.

" The settlement was effected when Hon. A. W.
McLelan was at the head of the finance depart-
ment. It included the surrender to the Govern-
ment, in part payment, of lands to the value of
$7,500,000, valued at $1.50 an acre, which
I strongly advised. In this instance, as well as
in many others, all the great constructive
measures tending to the upbuilding of Canada
were carried by the Conservative party at the
point of the bayonet.

" At a later date, when acting as High Com-
missioner in London, my assistance in the
flotation of the first issue of $25,000,000 of
Canadian Pacific Railway 5 per cent bonds was
sought by Sir George Stephen (now Lord Mount-
stephen), the then president of the company.
I told him not to tell Sir John Rose about having
consulted me, and promised to see what I could
do in the money market. I was successful in
interesting Lord Revelstoke, head of the house
of Barings and Glyn, which had always had
intimate relations with the Grand Trunk Rail-
way. Later, when Sir George Stephen reached
Liverpool on his return from Canada, he was
pleased to learn that I had closed a contract
with Barings and Glyn, to take half of the issue
at 91, with the privilege of issuing the second

116

Railway Policy

half of the issue at a later date. ' You have
given far too much,' was Sir John Rose's com-
ment, when he learned of the transaction. Sir
John at that very time was organizing a com-
pany to tender at 75.

"Jobbery and Graft" not Proved

" For my prominent connection with the
building of the railway I did not escape attack.
The c Toronto Globe ' made general charges of
jobbery and other improper practices during the
period of construction from 1880 to 1885. I
induced Sir John A. Macdonald to appoint a
Royal Commission to conduct a most searching
investigation. The inquiry was conducted by
the late Judge Clark, and Mr. Keefer an eminent
engineer. The evidence was taken under oath,
and the scores of witnesses examined included
engineers, contractors, Hon. Alexander Mac-
kenzie and myself.

" Not one word of evidence to support even
in the remotest way the charges brought by the
' Globe ' was adduced. At my request, the secre-
tary of the Commission was instructed to invite
the 6 Globe ' to produce its own witnesses. That
newspaper replied that it had no evidence to
submit, and that it had simply written on hear-
say rumours of jobbery and ' graft.' The pro-
ceedings and evidence taken before the Com-

117

Sir Charles Tupper

mission occupy two large volumes, which are
still extant. Thus ended the attempt to slander
my reputation as a public man.

" I have always maintained and still fervently
believe that the construction of the Canadian
Pacific Railway would have been an impossibility
without the inauguration of the National Policy
of the Conservative Party. Our fiscal policy
gave Canadians a new sense of independence,
preserved their home markets to a certain
degree, developed our manufacturing industries,
protected our farmers, and by giving employ-
ment to our people at home provided us with
the revenue to carry out a vigorous railway
policy. It stopped the exodus of our young
people to the United States, led to the settlement
of the North-west, and the development of an
enormous interprovincial trade made possible
by the existence of railways as well as the great
canal system perfected from year to year.
If the Eastern Provinces made sacrifices in the
first instance on behalf of the West, they are
now reaping a just reward. We have to-day a
homogeneous and prosperous nation living under
conditions not surpassed anywhere on the globe.

" Many years ago I ventured the opinion that
the child was born that would live to see the
population of the Dominion exceed the popula-
tion of the Mother Country. Hon. Mr. White,

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Railway Policy

the accomplished and able Minister of Finance,
enjoying better opportunities for judging, has
gone one better by declaring that this will
actually be accomplished within the next twenty-
five years. I have little doubt of the accuracy
of his prophecy."

119

i

VII

THE ''NATIONAL POLICY"

so-called "Pacific Scandal," the
resignation of the Conservative Gov-
ernment, the accession of the Liberals
to power under the leadership of Hon. Alexander
Mackenzie and the subsequent rehabilitation and
vindication of Sir John A. Macdonald by the
Canadian people, constitute the most stirring
series of Canadian political events in the seven-
ties. Not less important during the same decade
was the consistent advocacy of a protective
policy by the Conservative leaders, and its
crystallization into legislation after the Liberals
met with overwhelming defeat at the polls in
1878.

That policy is known to-day, as it was then, as
the National Policy. Its sponsor was Right Hon.
Sir Charles Tupper.

This is evidenced by a speech he delivered in
the House of Commons in the Session of 1870,
several months before accepting a portfolio in

i20

The "National Policy"

the Macdonald administration. It is an interest-
ing fact that the expression " National Policy ':
was first used or coined by Sir Charles Tupper in
the heat of a prolonged debate in February of
that year. His economic faith, shared no less
strongly by Sir John A. Macdonald, was cham-
pioned during the dark days of Opposition from
1873 to 1878 on the floor of Parliament, and at
hundreds of public meetings throughout the
country. And now, after the lapse of all those
years, Sir Charles is proud that protection is still
the favourite fiscal policy of the Canadian
people.

New Light on Familiar Subjects

In an interview the distinguished baronet
explained the causes that led to the first disaster
experienced by the Conservative party, and dis-
cussed many other related subjects with the
utmost freedom, thus throwing a new light on
them, and rendering a service to posterity.

In the General Elections of 1872 Sir John A.
Macdonald was sustained by a greatly reduced
majority, declared Sir Charles, owing to the
bitter hostility the Liberals aroused in the
country against the building of a transconti-
nental railway to the Pacific coast. Nova Scotia
alone returned a solid Conservative contingent.
This was in marked contrast to the prior election

121

Sir Charles Tupper

in 1867, the first after Confederation, when
Sir Charles was the only Conservative elected in
his native province.

" History, slow in its final judgments, will
some day characterize the so-called Pacific
Scandal, which proved the undoing of the
Conservatives, as the Pacific Slander, an appel-
lation I gave to the Liberal shibboleth just
about forty years ago," observed the veteran
statesman. "It is probably true that both
parties spent money freely in the campaign of
1872 in the Upper Provinces. However, when
the new Parliament assembled, Hon. L. S.
Huntington, member for Sherbrooke, brought
charges to the effect that Sir John and his
colleague, Sir George E. Cartier, had obtained
enormous sums of money for corrupting the
electorate from Sir Hugh Allan of Montreal, who
was the principal figure in a company organized
to build the proposed transcontinental railway.

" Mr. Huntington, in proof, read what he
claimed to be the originals of telegrams that had
been exchanged between the Premier and Sir
Hugh, at that time the senior partner and
founder of the Allan steamship line. One of
the alleged telegrams from Sir John to Sir Hugh
read : ' Please send me another $10,000.' Sir
David Macpherson also headed a rival company
organized to take advantage of the Government's

122

The "National Policy"

offer to build the railway. Sir Hugh had a
number of American associates. Sir John noti-
fied him that the Government would not have
anything to do with him if these aliens were
retained, and urged an amalgamation with Sir
David's company.

" No arrangement to that end having been
effected, Sir John, on behalf of the administra-
tion, formed a new company, himself naming
directors from the various provinces. Sir Hugh
was included in the list. At the very first
meeting of the new company Sir Hugh, the
president, was overruled. He subsequently went
to England to raise capital for the railway
enterprise, but failed. He was accompanied by
Sir John Abbott, who acted as legal adviser.

The Huntington Charges

" But to return to the Huntington charges.
Sir John made no reply, and the House in turn
voted confidence in him and his administration.
Then a day or two later our leader formally
asked the House to deal with the charges by
referring them to a committee composed of the
leading men of both parties. The House ac-
quiesced, and appointed a committee of which
Messrs. Mackenzie and Blake were named mem-
bers, entrusting it with full authority to send
for witnesses and take evidence under oath.

123

Sir Charles Tupper

" Sir John, who was anxious for the fullest
investigation, expressed doubt as to whether
the committee had authority to take evidence
under oath, as it was not in conformity with
British practice. He referred it to the Imperial
Government, which sustained his contention.
Headed by Mackenzie and Blake the Liberals
refused to serve because the oath was not ad-
ministered.

" Sir John then appointed a Royal Commission
consisting of three eminent judges, with author-
ity to hold an investigation, to examine witnesses
under oath, and report the evidence to Parlia-
ment. When everything was known no act of
corruption was brought home to the Premier or
any member of his Government, which still had
a majority in the House. What is more, not one
single member of Parliament on the Conservative
side was unseated in the subsequent election
trials, while a number of Liberals were un-
seated, and some of them were disqualified.

" It seems unfortunate," added Sir Charles,
" that here in Canada there is no institution,
analogous to the Carlton Club, entrusted with
the distribution of funds for legitimate cam-
paign purposes.

" It was agreed that Parliament should be
called pro forma to receive the report of the
Royal Commission, and that no other business

124

The "National Policy"

should be transacted. The Opposition assembled
in full force, raised a row at prorogation, and
appealed without avail to Lord Dufferin,
Governor- General .

Asked Sir John to Resign

" At the fall Session Mr. Mackenzie submitted
a resolution of want of confidence in the Govern-
ment. Party feeling ran high and the uttermost
bitterness prevailed. During the progress of
the debate Lord Dufferin sent for Sir John and
asked him to resign. I am now making this fact
public for the first time, as it was not even
known by any of the Premier's colleagues except
myself.

" When Sir John took me into his confidence,
as he always did, I proceeded to Government
House and sought an interview with the Governor-
General. ' Lord Dufferin,' I said, addressing
Her Majesty's representative, c I think you have
made a fatal mistake in demanding Sir John's
resignation. You are to-day Governor-General
of Canada and respected by all classes : to-
morrow you will be the head of the Liberal
party and will be denounced by the Conserva-
tives for having violated every principle of
constitutional government. If Her Majesty
would to-morrow undertake to do what you have
done she might lose her throne.'

125

Sir Charles Tupper

" c Well, what do you advise me to do ? '
asked Lord Dufferin.

" ' I desire to recommend that you cable the
Colonial Office and ask what it thinks of your
action.'

" The result of that interview was that Sir
John was aroused from his bed at two o'clock
in the morning and notified that Lord Dufferin
had recalled his decision. The record is, I have
no doubt, still on file in the Colonial Office.
The result of my advice was that Lord Dufferin
went home with the acclaim of both parties.
He subsequently had a brilliant ambassadorial
career, after serving as Viceroy of India. Mac-
kenzie and I spoke at the farewell banquet ten-
dered him in London before His Excellency
sailed for Bombay.

Resolution Never Reached Vote

" But to revert to the prolonged debate on the
want of confidence resolution submitted by
Hon. Mr. Mackenzie, leader of the Opposition.
The discussion proved very animated. I did my
utmost to defend Sir John, but the tide had now
commenced to set in against him. The resolu-
tion never came to a vote, as we lost so many of
our supporters by desertion that the Government
resigned. The Liberals captured six or seven
of our leading men by bribes of seats in the

126

contracts,
more to say

The "National Policy"

Cabinet and governorships or fat
Of these deserters I shall have
later.

" Mr. Mackenzie was called upon to form a
Government. He dissolved Parliament soon
afterwards, and appealed to the country in
January, 1874. We returned a corporal's guard.
William Macdonald and I were the only Con-
servatives elected in Nova Scotia. The Liberal
victory was a sweeping one. Even in the moment
of defeat I never doubted that the pendulum of
public opinion would ere many years swing as
strongly in the opposite direction. My judg-
ment was not shared by many of our leading
supporters. Sir John was considered politically
dead. He thought so himself, but I never enter-
tained that view.

" c I am done for,' declared Sir John to me in
expressing a desire to relinquish the leadership
of the party in my favour shortly after our
political debacle. The ex-Premier at that period
had struck the lowest ebb of his political for-
tunes. He felt his defeat keenly, and earnestly
believed that the people of Canada would never
restore him their confidence. His experience
has been paralleled by other statesmen in other
countries. I knew Sir John's strength better
than he did himself. It required every argument
I could use to induce him to remain at the head

127

Sir Charles Tupper

of the party. I told him that he was not only
mistaken in regard to himself, but that the
strongest lever at the next General Election
would be the desire to repair the injustice done
to him.

The Period after Defeat

" Despite my efforts, Sir John for a consider-
able time after our defeat took little part in
politics, seeming to prefer to remain in the back-
ground. Gradually he recognized that a reaction
in his favour had set in, and little by little his
old-time jauntiness returned. The bungling
incapacity of the Liberals also conspired in his
favour. Under a low tariff, from 1874 to 1878,
Canada had a business depression never equalled
before or since. The farmers had no markets ;
factories were closed down, and hundreds of
thousands of young Canadians were obliged to
emigrate.

66 The various Canadian provinces enjoyed
phenomenal prosperity under the Elgin recipro-
city treaty negotiated in 1854. This treaty was
abrogated by the United States in 1866. Times
were especially good during the American Civil
War period. The United States, owing to the
vast population withdrawn from industrial pur-
suits, proved to be Canada's best customer, and
there was no question of a tariff issue, as the

128

The "National Policy"

abnormal conditions existing south of the boun-
dary gave us all the protection we needed.

" But this situation was not to last for ever.
With the close of the Civil War was inaugurated
a nation-wide movement for the encouragement
and protection of American labour and American
industries by the imposition of heavy duties
against foreign competitors. That policy is
only now on the eve of being modified.

" Hon. W. H. Seward, probably one of the
ablest of Secretaries of State, felt confident that
the abrogation of the Elgin reciprocity treaty
would force Canada into the American Union.
In a famous speech just after the close of the
Civil War he declared that Canada, owing to its
geographical position, with Halifax on the Atlan-
tic and a stretch of country extending to the
Pacific, must inevitably dominate the trade with
the Far East. He was a man of vision, and his
prophecy in that respect has since been verified.

" In those days, owing to the lack of railway
facilities, there was little inter-provincial trade.
The bulk of the trade of the Maritime Provinces
was then with the New England states. The
termination of the reciprocity treaty hit us a
hard blow, and but for that circumstance I
should probably have been unable to convince
the people of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
that our future was in a union with the upper
K 129

Sir Charles Tupper

Canadian provinces. Gradually the restrictive
policy of the United States' tariff — a policy
wisely directed to the upbuilding of American
industry — began to be more acutely felt in the
Dominion, and its full effects were experienced
by the time the Liberals got into power in 1873.
" Mackenzie did nothing to relieve the situa-
tion. His low revenue tariff permitted the
American people to gain access to our market,
while Canadians were virtually excluded from
that of their neighbours. The effect of the
American high tariff was not only felt by the
Canadian farmers and manufacturers, but it
produced a largely increased demand in Canada
for American manufactures, and a more than
corresponding increase in the demand for the
manufactures of Great Britain, of which the trade
returns of Canada showed abundant proof."

In Opposition, Back to Medicine

Gifted with a marvellous memory Sir Charles
recalled with ease many scenes and incidents in
his experiences between 1874 and 1878, the period
his party spent in Opposition. Into those four
years he probably crowded more work than the
ordinary man performs in a lifetime. In addi-
tion to making frequent visits to the Maritime
Provinces he found time to practise his profes-
sion, to tour Ontario, and to attend to his

130

The "National Policy"

parliamentary duties. Those indeed were strenu-
ous days, and only a man endowed with won-
derful physical strength and will-power could
have withstood the strain.

" After the Liberal victory in 1874 I engaged
in medical practice in Ottawa, usually spending
a portion of the summer at St. Andrew's, N.B.
When later my son in Toronto was bereaved by
the death of his young wife, who left an infant
daughter, I decided to remove to that city. It
proved to be my headquarters for the next two
years. I practised there as a medical man, and
also took an active part in politics. I not only
attended Liberal meetings and demanded and
obtained a hearing, but accompanied Sir John
on numerous tours. We probably attended
scores of political picnics during the summer
months. Not one portion of the province was
overlooked," smilingly observed the veteran, as
he became reminiscent.

Tupper and Mackenzie

14 I had one amusing experience during the
first by-election, that of North Renfrew, where
the Liberals announced three meetings. Our
friends in that riding telegraphed me to meet
Mr. Mackenzie, the Premier, who had been in-
duced to speak on behalf of the Government
candidate. At the ticket office, whom should I

131

Sir Charles Tupper

encounter but Mr. Mackenzie ? He seemed very
angry, and refused to recognize me. We both
boarded the same train — on a line which at that
time did not extend as far as our destination.
When we got to the end of the run we found
that the hotel-keeper had reserved us a small
table for dinner, our coming evidently having
been announced. Seeing the situation, Mr.
Mackenzie, who was not without humour, burst
out laughing, and I confess that I did likewise.

" ' Well, Tupper,' he said, as we seated our-
selves opposite each other, ' I guess we had better
make the best of it. My friends have sent me a
sleigh to cover the rest of the trip, so you had
better share it with me.'

" ' Thanks,' I replied in declining, ' but my
friends have done the same.'

" Then and there we agreed upon the arrange-
ments for the meeting. Mackenzie was to speak
first, I was to reply, and the Premier was to be
allowed fifteen minutes to close the meeting. I
drove there in our own sleigh. Mr. Mackenzie
spoke very pleasantly and I could only reply in
kind. Then he used his fifteen minutes to make
an effective attack. I respected our previous
arrangement and had to ' take my medicine.'
Mr. Mackenzie proposed the same arrangement
for the next meeting, and I agreed.

66 But I was not caught napping that time.

132

The "National Policy"

He spoke very pleasantly in his first address,
but I used the opportunity to criticize his Govern-
ment in the severest terms, and evened up the
score. And as Mr. Mackenzie had only fifteen
minutes in which to close the meeting he did not
make a very effective reply," laughed Sir Charles,
as he related the incident. The election was won
by the Conservatives, whose candidate, Hon.
Peter White, later became Speaker of the House
of Commons.

Toronto By-election Recalled

" Another memorable by-election was the con-
test in Toronto to fill the vacancy created by
the elevation of Mr. Moss, the Liberal member,
to the bench. Our candidate, Hon. John Bever-
ley Robinson, won by over 500 majority. It was
at the declaration of the poll that Sir John A.
Macdonald made his first public reappearance
after his defeat. He received a hearty recep-
tion.

" We toured the province together for the
next two years. Our party unseated scores of
Liberal members in the courts for corrupt prac-
tices, and we won a majority of the by-elections,
in every one of which, in Ontario and the Maritime
Provinces, I actively participated. In our various
tours the Toronto ' Globe ' criticized my speeches
the day after their delivery, and it was my in-

133

Sir Charles Tupper

variable rule to demolish their arguments at the
very first opportunity.

" One of my other favourite subjects was the
so-called ' Pacific Scandal.' I publicly defied
the Liberals at their own meetings to put their
finger on one parliamentary supporter who had
left us on that account, and proved that bribery
by the Liberals had caused the defections in our
ranks. No less than six of our supporters left
us to accept seats in the Cabinet ; others were
placated with governorships or with fat con-
tracts. Sir Albert Smith of Westmoreland, first
elected as a Liberal, got back to the House in
1872 by running as a Conservative. His reward
for bolting was the portfolio of Marine and
Fisheries. Hon. Mr. Cauchon, later Lieutenant-
Governor of Manitoba, got a seat in the Cabinet
for deserting. He was the individual whose
' corruption smelt to Heaven,' according to the
indictment of the Toronto ' Globe.'

" Hon. Isaac Burpee, a former Liberal, elected
as a supporter of Sir John, was given the Customs
portfolio. Two other renegades, Ross of Cape
Breton, and Coffin of Shelbourne, also became
Cabinet Ministers. Hon. David Laird became
Minister of the Interior and afterwards Governor
of the North-west. Laird hailed from Prince
Edward Island. I went over there in 1872 to
take part in the General Election. Laird per-

134

The "National Policy"

suaded me to leave. He said that the Liberals
on the island would give solid support to the
Conservatives, because the Liberals in Ottawa
had declared the union terms granted the island
were too favourable.

A Five Hours' Speech

" Throughout our days in Opposition we advo-
cated a radical change in the fiscal system of the
country. Times were going from bad to worse.
The people saw the possibility of relief in the
adoption of a higher tariff, but the Government
refused to apply the remedy, and clung to office.
In a five hours' speech delivered in the House on
April 21st, 1877, in submitting a want of confi-
dence resolution, I criticized Mackenzie's ad-
ministration of his own Department of Public
Works. I showed that he had failed to effectually
grapple with the question of building the trans-
continental railway, and moreover, proved that
he had violated the law and every constitutional
principle, all resulting in a waste of public money.
The Premier was unable to make any reply
worthy of the name.

" ' That speech of yours will never be answered
because it is unanswerable,' Sir Leonard Tilley,
then Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick,
wrote me a few weeks later. Mackenzie meant
well, but he devoted too much time to super-

135

Sir Charles Tupper

vising the departments of his colleagues, and
doing work which should have been performed
by subordinates.

Tupper and Cartwright

" As chief financial critic I also had many lively
exchanges with Sir Richard Cartwright, Minister
of Finance. Cartwright was a gifted man, and
resourceful in debate. A Conservative at heart
to the end of his days, he left our party because,
as I have already said, Sir John A. Macdonald
had a few years previously passed him over in
favour of Sir Francis Hincks in filling the Finance
portfolio. In the Session of 1877 our leader
moved, and I seconded, a resolution proposing
such a readjustment of the tariff as would benefit
and foster the agricultural, mining and manu-
facturing interests of the Dominion. In the
6 Hansard ' of that year, page 471, in my speech
on the Budget the following appears :—

" ' The policy of the Government (i.e. the
policy of the then Mackenzie Government) as
pursued has had the effect of depopulating the
country. It has sent away the most intelligent
and skilled labour, the finest sons of Canada, to
a foreign land to obtain the employment their
own country denies them. This is a fatal policy,
and one which must induce us to forgo all our
aspirations for anything like a rapidly increased

136

The "National Policy"

population for this country in the future, and to
consent to become hewers of wood and drawers
of water for our friends across the line in the great
republic of the United States. Canada has every-
thing that can be desired to make it a great
manufacturing country. We have iron, coal and
limestone. Ours is perhaps the richest country
for minerals to be found on the face of the globe.
We have open harbours, rapid transit and com-
munication through a great portion of the
Dominion, and away in the Far West, mines of
gold and silver, that in my opinion are going to
excel any on the American continent.

" ' All we require is a policy calculated to open
up and develop our great natural resources in
order to make Canada all that the noblest
aspirations of the most patriotic Canadians has
ever supposed for a moment practicable. ... I
say Canada could adopt a revenue policy or such
a policy with relation to goods coming from
Great Britain or from British possessions as the
necessities of Canada indicated, and another
tariff for all the rest of the world. That would
apply only to the United States practically, be-
cause our imports from other portions of the
world are almost uniformly articles upon which
there are specific and not ad valorem duties, and
we could adjust that in the interests of Canada
as we pleased.

137

Sir Charles Tupper

" ' I have no doubt that this would meet the
only serious difficulty represented by the hon.
gentlemen opposite, as standing in the way of a
true Canadian policy, and one that those who
wish to see Canadian industries flourish, feel it
is time that the country should grapple with
earnestly, and deal with as I have mentioned.'

Prediction and the Result

" Later on, secret information reached me that
Sir Richard Cartwright, reading the signs of the
times aright, was getting ready to make radical
increases in the tariff. I lost no time in com-
municating the news to Sir John.

66 ' What shall we do ? ' asked our leader.

" ' Why, congratulate him, of course,' I ad-
vised.

" Unfortunately for the Liberals they failed
to realize their opportunity. When Hon. A. G.
Jones, a member of the Government, arrived
from Halifax and learned of Cartwright's tariff
proposals, he raised a storm of protest and
threatened to bolt. That settled the matter.
Shortly after the dissolution of Parliament I
called on Lord Dufferin, and in answer to his
questions told him that the Liberals did not
have a leg to stand upon because their party
had started to die the very day it had begun to
live. The Government majority had at that

138

The "National Policy"

time dwindled to about forty, from over eighty
in 1874, the year of their tidal wave. As I was
leaving Lord Dufferin, who should enter but
Mr. Mackenzie ! . . .

" ' Tupper tells me that the Conservatives are
going to win,' observed Lord Dufferin, address-
ing the Premier.

" ' Oh, he's a little too sanguine,' dryly com-
mented Mackenzie.

" But he misjudged public sentiment, for in
the following General Election we routed the
Liberals, horse, foot and artillery, returning to
power with a majority of over eighty. Sir John
was, of course, called upon to form an adminis-
tration, in which I filled the portfolio of Public
Works. I subsequently had the department
divided, creating a new department, that of
Railways and Canals, of which I took charge.
To this day that arrangement exists, other public
improvements other than railways and canals
being under the direction of the Minister of Public
Works.

Under the National Policy

" The next four years represented years of
ceaseless activity and constructive statesman-
ship, inuring to the agricultural and industrial
development of the Dominion. True to our
promises we adopted the National Policy at the

139

Sir Charles Tupper

earliest moment, got under way a vast programme
for the deepening of the waterways and canals
of the St. Lawrence system, and after the com-
pletion of surveys, entered into an agreement
for the building of a national transcontinental
railway from Eastern Canada to the Pacific coast.
" The effect of the substitution of a protective
tariff for the Mackenzie revenue law proved
magical. It restricted the exodus, gave employ-
ment in the factories to our own idle working
men, stimulated every branch of manufacturing,
led to the establishment of many new industries
and preserved the home market for our own
people. The farmer was also given substantial
protection. During the Mackenzie administra-
tion, Canada became the dumping-ground for
the surplus manufactured products of the United
States, which, enjoying the benefit of a high
tariff, rigidly excluded Canadian products of every
description.

Bulwark of National Life

" The National Policy, in my judgment," added
Sir Charles with enthusiasm, " is one of the bul-
warks of our national life. It made possible the
building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, stimu-
lated inter-provincial trade, and developed a
solidarity of sentiment that has been growing
stronger since Confederation was brought about.

140

The "National Policy"

" We are to-day a self-contained people, and
recent years have witnessed the spectacle of
millions of foreign capital being invested in
Canadian manufacturing industries. The farmer,
too, enjoys his home market. Earlier experiences
of Canadian statesmen showed the futility of
efforts to induce the United States to negotiate
an equitable reciprocity agreement. Our tariff,
while ensuring reasonable protection for all our
people, has never had the almost restrictive
character of the American fiscal system.

" It was a great day for the Dominion when
the people rejected the Taft-Fielding reciprocity
agreement. Now we are on the eve of witnessing
a radical revision of the United States tariff at
the hands of Congress, and Canada, without
giving any equivalent, will reap enormous ad-
vantages. As a people we have demonstrated to
the world our ability to develop along national
lines. Who that does not recall with pride the
attitude of Canadians at the time of the enforce-
ment of the McKinley tariff, many of whose
clauses were specifically aimed at our common
country ? "

Future historians will not fail to give Sir
Charles credit for having been the pioneer advo-
cate of a distinctively national policy of protec-
tion. His speeches in the days of Opposition,
from 1874 to 1878, show an elaboration of detail

141

Sir Charles Tupper

and ripened conviction on that subject, not quite
approached in his earlier public deliverances.

Origin of the Policy

The following quotations from his speech in
the Dominion Parliament in February, 1870,
throw light upon the origin of the national
policy :

" But this country is so geographically situ-
ated, and so varied in its products and natural
resources, that nature has placed it in our power
to protect ourselves by a policy not retaliatory or
vindictive, but by a national policy which shall
encourage the industries of our country. By
proper attention to the development of our
resources, we shall have an interchange of pro-
ducts, and in two years I believe we shall be
utterly indifferent as to whether we have a treaty
or not. . . .

" I would ask whether the policy which will
bring the people into the country, which will
stimulate every industry in the Dominion, is not
one that is worthy of the attention of this House,
irrespective and regardless altogether of its effect
upon the United States : and I have no hesita-
tion in saying that under the effects of a policy
such as this, that would restore greater pros-
perity in this country than we had under recipro-
city, we shall not need to go to other countries,

142

The "National Policy"

nor to the United States for a renewal of reci-
procity or improved trade relations, because they
will be coming and seeking it at our hands. . . .

" Is it not worth while to try how far we may
increase these native enterprises, and give pros-
perity to the country, by adopting a policy which
will meet the unfair opposition by which the
Canadian manufacturer is met from other coun-
tries ? . . .

" My honourable friend the Secretary for the
Provinces has relieved his mind to some extent,
but I may tell him that this Canadian policy —
this national policy, this rational policy — will
stimulate the enterprise of all the provinces, and
will aid in and assist in building up this great
Dominion. And I may further tell the honour-
able gentleman that so friendly is Nova Scotia
to this policy of building up our own interests
that there has been but one single newspaper
out of the eleven newspapers published in Nova
Scotia that has raised any objection to it, and
several have come out warmly in its support."

143

VIII
INTERESTING DETAILS

SIR CHARLES also related a great deal
of unwritten inside history respecting the
question of the selection of Sir John's
successor. Had he accepted the offer tendered
him by his leader, Sir John Abbott, Sir John
Thompson and Sir Mackenzie Bowell might never
have attained the premiership. The story is a
typical one of Sir Charles's readiness for self-
sacrifice when the interests of his country de-
manded it, a notable characteristic of his long
career. It is on a par with his refusal to accept
a Cabinet position until Hon. Joseph Howe, his
great opponent in the Confederation fight, had
been placated and given a portfolio.

" When acting as Canadian High Commis-
sioner in England I was invited to return to
Canada in 1887 by Sir John Macdonald to partici-
pate in the General Elections," said Sir Charles.
" I was appointed Minister of Finance, the great
feature of my budget being the iron and steel

144

Interesting Details

policy, introduced with a view to establishing
the industry on a solid basis. It did not succeed
just then because the iron and steel industry
throughout the world at that time was in a
depressed condition. However, I always re-
mained a consistent supporter of that policy,
and have lived to see its beneficent effects as
evidenced by the great industries now estab-
lished at Sydney, Cape Breton and at Sault
Ste. Marie, Ontario. When my son, Sir Charles
Hibbert visited the ' Soo,' some years ago, the
manager in showing him about the works re-
marked : ' We owe all this to your father's
initiative. He was the real founder of the Cana-
dian iron and steel industry.'

Campaign of '87

" Well, I plunged into the campaign of 1887
just after Hon. W. S. Fielding had carried Nova
Scotia for Commercial Union, which was then
the chief plank of the platform of the Liberals.
In the face of his victory we not only won fifteen
out of twenty-one seats in that province, but
again obtained a renewal of the confidence of
the Canadian people. Fielding's policy, if carried
out, would have resulted in the disruption of
Confederation. Later in the same year, and in
the early part of 1888, acting as a fellow-plenipo-
tentiary with Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain
L 145

Sir Charles Tupper

on behalf of the British Government, we negoti-
ated a fisheries treaty with the United States.
The treaty was unanimously approved by the
Dominion House of Commons, but failed to ob-
tain the ratification of the United States Senate,
despite the earnest recommendations of Presi-
dent Cleveland.

" After the Session I announced my intention
of returning to London. Sir John urged me to
stay, but I persisted in my refusal, telling him
that he had a good majority, and that I could
render Canada better service as High Commis-
sioner. Just about this time Sir George Stephen,
President of the Canadian Pacific Railway,
representing vast interests, called on me and
declared that it was my duty to remain in
Canada ; that if anything happened to Sir John,
I ought to be chosen as his successor. He com-
municated these views in a letter addressed to
Hon. John Henry Pope, Minister of Railways,
who gave the letter to Sir John Macdonald. Mr.
Pope had always been a warm personal friend
of mine. On my earlier visit to England, while
still holding the portfolio of railways, during the
building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, he
always looked after my department.

146

Interesting Details

Offered the Leadership

" The Premier sent for me next day.

" ' If you will only consent to remain,' urged
Sir John in showing me Sir George Stephen's
letter, ' I will publicly recognize you as my
successor.'

" ' But you have already made pledges to Sir
Hector Langevin,' I said ; * when you were in
difficulties over the execution of Louis Kiel, the
half-breed rebel leader, you told Langevin that
he would be your successor if he succeeded in
retaining the support of the French-Canadian
Conservatives.'

" I further told him that the emergency justi-
fied his action, that it was a wise proposition ;
that nothing could be said against Langevin as a
public man, and that the old system in vogue in
the days of the United Provinces of an English-
speaking man and a Frenchman alternating in the
premiership had worked well.

" ' If you will only agree to stay,' persisted Sir
John, ' I will send for Langevin and the rest of
my Cabinet, and designate you as my successor.
Langevin, I am sure, will be agreeable.'

" I was firm in my refusal. ' The true policy,'
I repeated, ' is to carry out your pledge to Sir
Hector. The arrangement before Confederation
between Cartier and yourself about alternating

147

Sir Charles Tupper

in the premiership worked well. It will still
work well, and will make a favourable impres-
sion in the Province of Quebec.'

Sir John's Alternative

" c Well,' argued Sir John, c if you insist on
returning to England, I want you to give me
Charlie,' referring to my son, Charles Hibbert,
who, as member for Picton, had sat continuously
in the House since 1882. I naturally consented,
and have never had any regrets over that de-
cision. My son was sworn in shortly afterwards
as Minister of Marine and Fisheries, gave Sir
John loyal support, and served in successive
Conservative administrations until our defeat in
1896. His last portfolio was that of Minister of
Justice. He served as British agent in the
Behring Sea arbitration in Paris in 1893, and in
recognition of his public services was knighted
by Her Majesty Queen Victoria.

" My son's entry into public life was unpre-
meditated, having been brought about by an
accidental circumstance. In the early stages of
the campaign in 1882, there was a factional
fight among the Conservatives in Pictou, and
two rival Conservatives insisted on trying to
capture the party candidature. While the dead-
lock was in progress, they consulted my son
from Halifax to see if he could effect a friendly

148

Interesting Details

settlement of the schism in the party. Neither
man would give way to the other, but both
agreed to accept Charles Hibbert Tupper as a
compromise candidate. He was elected, and in
his first Session had the honour of being invited
by Sir John to move the adoption of the address
in reply to the speech from the throne.

" When my son sat down after his first speech
in the House, Hon. Edward Blake, the Opposi-
tion leader, crossed the floor to the Ministerial
side and, grasping my hand, remarked with un-
usual warmth : c Permit me to congratulate you
upon your son's brilliant effort. In all my
parliamentary career I never heard an opening
address delivered with equal ability. Please
introduce me, for I wish to tender my congratula-
tions.' "

As the Grand Old Man of Canada related this
incident he spoke with just a touch of pride in his
voice, the just pride of a parent who felt honoured
by the hearty compliment paid his son by his
strongest political opponent.

Sir John's Last Campaign

Sir Charles referred with no little feeling to
the seventh and last election campaign he waged
in 1891 under the leadership of Sir John A.
Macdonald. In many respects it was the most
bitterly contested election ever fought between

149

Sir Charles Tupper

the two political parties. The issues were sharply
defined. The chief plank in the Liberal platform
was the advocacy of a policy of unrestricted
reciprocity with the United States, a modifica-
tion, at least in name, of the policy of Com-
mercial Union espoused by the Opposition in the
campaign of 1887.

1 \ The Conservatives went to the country pledged

jbo a continuance of the National Policy and to

/the preservation of British connection, which

I they maintained would be jeopardized by a

j (Liberal victory. ' A British subject I was born,

a British subject I will die,' was the campaign

slogan of the venerable premier, who braved the

hardships of severe wintry weather in a dramatic

'tour of Ontario.

Sir Charles Tupper, summoned from England,
at Sir John's urgent request entered the fray
with all his old-time vigour and proved an in-
spiration to the party. He addressed scores of
public meetings in the Maritime Provinces, as
well as in Ontario and Quebec. A tower of
strength, he contributed very largely to the
Conservative victory.

Hon. Edward Blake, alarmed at the dangers
of the radical policy advocated by his friends,
refused to run, but was unwillingly persuaded
not to publish his reasons until after the election.
This he did in the London " Times," in which he

150

Interesting Details

avowed his refusal on the ground that the policy
of unrestricted reciprocity would end in the
political absorption of Canada by the United
States.

Close of Sir John's Career

Sir John did not long survive the great party
victory. Less than four months later he was
stricken with paralysis, dying at Ottawa early
in June, 1891. That his death was hastened by
dissensions among his French-Canadian followers
is regarded as highly probable. Sir Charles gave
a graphic recital of the last days of Sir John's
dramatic career.

" Before I returned to England after the elec-
tion, I was informed by Sir Adolphe Caron,
Minister of Militia, that Mr. J. Israel Tarte, M.P.,
a Government supporter and well-known journa-
list, had secured evidence of corruption against
Sir Hector Langevin, and that Tarte was deter-
mined to prefer charges in Parliament. I at once
sent for Mr. Tarte, who informed me of his in-
tention to drive Langevin from public life. He
convinced me that he could do so.

" ' You have carried the election, but there are
rocks ahead,' I told Sir John, without a mo-
ment's delay. I gave him my information about
Tarte's resolve. To Tarte I said : ' Would you ,
object to Langevin's appointment as Lieutenant -

151

Sir Charles Tupper

Governor of Quebec ? ' 'I am agreeable to that
arrangement,' replied Tarte.

" I then saw Sir John, who had broken down
physically under the strain of the recent cam-
paign. He looked ill and worried. When I
suggested Langevin's transfer to Government
House at Quebec, Sir John replied : ' How can I
do that, when Langevin denies the charges ? '
I then went into conference with Sir Hector,
who protested his innocence.

" The charges were not preferred in Parlia-
ment until after I had reached England. Before
the investigation got under way, Sir John was
stricken and passed away. The end of the affair
was that Sir Hector was forced out of the Cabinet.
Tarte established his charges of corruption and
' graft ' in connection with the Larkin-Connelly
contracts for Quebec harbour improvements.
Tarte went over to the Opposition, and did effec-
tive work in bringing Sir Wilfrid Laurier into
power. He was awarded a portfolio, and reached
high rank in party councils.

" In justice to Sir Hector's memory it should
be said that no act of personal corruption was
brought to him, but there was maladministration
in his department by his subordinates. He was
more sinned against than sinning."

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Interesting Details

Tupper in Vienna when End came

Sitting as a delegate at an International Postal
Congress in Vienna, Sir Charles received a cable
advising him of the death of Sir John Macdonald.
The various messages which were interchanged
between Ottawa and Vienna during the inter-
regnum have never been made public.

The political situation in Ottawa after the
premier's demise was tense. The Liberals ex-
pected to see the Government driven from power
before the end of the Session as a result of the
impending inquiry over the Tarte charges. On
the part of the Conservatives prompt action in
selecting Sir John's successor was regarded as
imperative. The exigencies of the hour required
it. Sir John Abbott, leader of the Government
in the Senate, was invited by the Governor-
General, Lord Stanley of Preston, to form a new
administration. It was well understood at the
time that this was to be a temporary arrange-
ment. He did so, and his successors during the
next four years were Sir John Thompson and Sir
Mackenzie Bowell.

" The day after Sir John's death I received a
cablegram from the Conservatives of Kingston,
his old constituency, offering me the nomination
and assuring me of a large majority. My son,
Charles Hibbert, also cabled me that a certain

153

Sir Charles Tupper

number of Government supporters in the House
favoured the selection of Sir John Thompson for
the office of Prime Minister. The moment I got
this intelligence I sent a reply telling him that
nothing in the world would induce me to accept
the honour if tendered to me, and that I would
not stand in Thompson's way, as I had been
responsible for getting Thompson to leave the
Bench to join the Government. To my friends
in Kingston I also cabled declining the nomina-
tion with thanks."

The Iron Industry

Sir Charles does not believe that the Conserva-
tive party has been given the full share of credit
for taking the first steps to establish the iron and
steel industry in the Dominion. He was the first
Minister of Finance to establish iron and steel
industries in Canada. Events proved that his
legislation was premature, as the price of iron
and its products fell nearly 50 per cent in Eng-
land during the next few years. His policy was
reintroduced and adopted by the Liberal Govern-
ment years afterwards with his hearty support
and concurrence.

" When Leader of the Opposition in 1896, I
paid a visit to Sydney, my constituency, the site
of a struggling iron industry. A deputation com-
posed of the City Council arid Board of Trade

154

Interesting Details

waited on me and asked me to assist them in
getting the industry firmly established. In reply
I dwelt on the possibilities of its development,
showing that the economic conditions were
favourable. Messrs. H. M. Whitney and Mr.
Graham Fraser, who were interested in the pro-
ject, informed me that the Government had
refused to pay a bounty, and invited me to go
to England to raise capital for the establishment
of a large plant. In reply I told them that I had
a better plan, and stated that I would interview
the Government and pledge the support of the
Opposition to any policy it might adopt for the
purpose of assisting that industry.

" I afterwards visited St. John to formally
open an exhibition there, and during my stay I
met Hon. Mr. Fielding, Minister of Finance, and
Hon. William Patterson, Minister of Customs, in
the Liberal Government. To them I submitted
reasons why the iron and steel industry was
deserving of Government aid in the way of
bounties, and made a formal offer of the support
of the Conservative Opposition to any policy that
might be introduced in Parliament. They both
agreed to reconsider the question.

" Later, when I learned that they had taken
favourable action, I remarked at Ottawa, in the
presence of Hon. Mr. Borden : ' I am glad to
hear it. I would rather remain in Opposition

155

Sir Charles Tupper

than be guilty of refusing my support to the
bounty system.'

" When they were boasting what wonders it
would accomplish, I told them in Parliament
that they had taken too much credit to them-
selves, and reminded them of the Opposition's
support, which I had pledged. Fielding replied
that he had never refused aid to the industry,
so it remains a question of fact. However, Mr.
Graham Fraser later wrote Mr. Whitney reiter-
ating what both had told me, that the Govern-
ment had previously refused to grant any aid to
the industry."

Transpacific Service

It is not generally known that Sir Charles
Tupper took the lead in the establishment of the
present Empress Line steamship service between
Vancouver and the Orient.

" Shortly after the completion of the Canadian
Pacific Railway," observed Sir Charles, " I went
to Lord Goschen, Chancellor of the Exchequer,
and told him that Canada had built the Canadian
Pacific Railway without the assistance of the
British Government, and that under the cir-
cumstances I felt that we were entitled to an
Imperial mail subsidy for a mail service across
the Pacific. I asked him for an annual subsidy
of £45,000, pointing out that Canada had agreed

156

Interesting Details

to contribute £15,000 a year for the same
object.

" The matter remained in abeyance during
my visit to Canada and I entrusted the negotia-
tions in my absence to Sir John Rose. He was
unsuccessful, and on returning to England I took
up the matter again.

" ' You have convinced me, but it will be im-
possible to get the House of Commons to make
the grant,' was the reply of Lord Goschen to my
appeal. He was mistaken, however, for the
Canadian Pacific Railway obtained the mail
subsidy, and in the debate the only objections
made were that the grant was too small, and that
a more frequent service should have been pro-
vided for.

Favoured Fast Atlantic Service

" Years afterwards, with Right Hon. Joseph
Chamberlain, I took up the question of the estab-
lishment of a fast Atlantic steamship service,
also expressing my views thereon at an address
before the Royal Colonial Institute, with Lord
Lome in the chair. I induced Mr. Chamberlain to
agree to an annual subsidy of £75,000 a year for
a period of ten years. Then I came to Canada to
arrange the details with Sir Mackenzie Bowell,
at that time Prime Minister of the Dominion,
and when leader in the House of Commons I

157

Sir Charles Tupper

submitted a resolution authorizing the Govern-
ment to grant £150,000 annually towards an
eighteen-knot service and to enter into a con-
tract, subject to the approval of Parliament.
The resolution was adopted.

" Then I awarded a contract to the Allans of
Glasgow, but Lord Aberdeen, Governor-General,
in defiance of constitutional procedure withheld
his assent, despite the fact that Parliament was
to meet three weeks later. When Sir Wilfrid
Laurier attained power, his Government refused
to ratify the contract, though they made several
unsuccessful attempts afterwards to carry out
the same policy.

" In view of the rapid development of Canada
in recent years I am to-day heartily in favour of
the establishment of a twenty-two-knot service,
which I hope to see shortly accomplished."

158

IX

CONSERVATIVE DEFEAT

IN this, one of the last of the series of inter-
views accorded to the late William A.
Harkin, Sir Charles Tupper discussed many
past political events, national and imperial,
with his usual lucidity and candour. A partici-
pant in all of them, the veteran statesman sup-
plied many facts hitherto unpublished and threw
interesting sidelights on several important periods
of Canadian history. His vision of the great
destiny the Dominion is to play on the North
American continent is inspiring. It is a pro-
phecy based on a rounded knowledge and an
optimism which the weight of more than ninety-
two years cannot suppress.

The valuable diplomatic services rendered
to Canada abroad by Sir Charles have long
been recognized by all patriotic Canadians.
It has already been shown that he was a pioneer
in the movement that resulted in preferential
treatment of British products, a movement
that gives promise of ultimately embracing the

159

Sir Charles Tupper

whole Empire. The cause of Imperial Federa-
tion has always been close to his heart. On that
subject he has strong views, but he entertains no
illusions as to the problems which will first have
to be solved in order to make it effective.

His correspondence with Sir John A. Mac-
donald in regard to Imperial Federation is
illuminating. It also shows the attitude adopted
towards it by Sir Hector Langevin, a Cabinet
colleague, who was the leader of the French-
Canadian Conservatives.

Not the least important part of the interview
is the description of the role played by the
Father of Confederation in the negotiation of
the Fisheries Treaty at Washington in 1888.
How serious the situation had become, the
Dominion being threatened with the enforce-
ment of a policy of non-intercourse, Sir Charles
fully describes. Trouble was averted, but not a
moment too soon, and the negotiations in which
Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain and Sir Charles
Tupper participated, resulted, in the end, in
the removal of the ill-feeling previously existing
in the United States against Canada over the
Atlantic fisheries dispute.

Session of '95 and After

" The downfall of the Conservative party in
1895-6 was occasioned by the determination of

160

Conservative Defeat

the Government not to deal with the Manitoba
school question in the Session of 1895. The
delay resulted in that question being thrown
into the final Session of Parliament, which ended
on a certain day and enabled Sir Wilfrid Laurier,
leader of the Opposition, to join with a large
section of the Orangemen in preventing the
Government from passing the remedial legisla-
tion giving effect to the decision of the judicial
committee of the Imperial Privy Council," ex-
plained Sir Charles in reply to a query. " Sir
Wilfrid had himself previously demanded the
strongest form of coercion of Manitoba by
demanding the disallowance of the Act of the
Manitoba Legislature abolishing separate schools.
The attitude taken at that time by Sir John A.
Macdonald and Sir John Thompson was that
the question being before the courts, the final
decision of the Privy Council must govern.

" When a majority of the members of the
Bowell Cabinet had resigned, and the party had
been broken into pieces, I was reluctantly
induced to come to the rescue on the meeting of
Parliament in December, 1895. Asked by the
recalcitrant members of the Cabinet to assume
the leadership, I refused, declaring that I would
not do so except at the request of the Premier,
Sir Mackenzie Bowell. It was not until all
efforts on his part at reconstruction had failed,
M 161

Sir Charles Tupper

that he requested me to become leader of the
party. I told him that I would do so if he were
prepared to receive back all his colleagues, to
which he assented.

" The Government was then reconstructed by
my appointment as Secretary of State and leader
of the party in the House of Commons until after
the Session was over, when, by arrangement, I
was to succeed Sir Mackenzie Bowell as Prime
Minister. Sir Mackenzie proposed that my son,
Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper, should succeed me
in the office of Canadian High Commissioner in
England. I told him that in view of the vitally
important question of the establishment of a
fast Atlantic steamship service, for which I had
previously made arrangements with Right Hon.
Joseph Chamberlain, and the impending Pacific
cable conference, I thought it desirable that the
position should be tendered to Lord Strathcona
in consideration of his prominent financial stand-
ing. One of my first official acts on assuming the
Premiership was to appoint Lord Strathcona High
Commissioner. Sir Mackenzie Bowell was also
appointed jointly with him as one of the delegates
to represent Canada at the cable conference.

The Remedial Bill

" In consequence of Bowell's refusal to deal
with the Manitoba school question at the pre-
162

SIR CHARLES TUPPER IN 1898
Curtis Brown News Bureau

p. 162

Conservative Defeat

vious Session by seeking to carry out the manda-
tory decision of the Imperial Privy Council,
Hon. A. R. Angers, one of the French-Canadian
members of the Cabinet, had resigned, and efforts
to fill the vacancy had proved fruitless.

" When I moved the second reading of the
Remedial Bill granting relief to the Roman
Catholic minority in Manitoba, Sir Wilfrid Lau-
rier joined Mr. Dalton McCarthy and a number
of members of Parliament, members of the
Orange Order, in opposing the measure. The
Opposition leader moved the six months' hoist.
Notwithstanding that I still had a Conservative
majority to support the Bill, nothing could be
done, as the combination resorted to obstruction.
I kept the house in continuous Session from
Monday to Saturday. This proved unavailing,
as in the absence of closure I was helpless, and
the Opposition took advantage of the fact that
on a certain date the House would die by the
effluxion of time.

" Sir J. A. Chapleau, Lieutenant- Governor of
the Province of Quebec, and a former colleague,
who had led me to believe that he would come to
my aid in the General Election, was induced
Mr. Israel Tarte, M.P., to recede from that
position. The school question was a big issue in
the campaign. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who had
succeeded in defeating the measure in the House,

163

Sir Charles Tupper

carried the Province of Quebec by a declaration
that his objection to the Bill was that it did not
go far enough, and by pledging himself to restore
the rights of the Manitoba Catholics in all their
entirety if necessary. The result was that
Chapleau's defection and the hostility of a large
portion of the Orange element in Ontario led to
my defeat.

" I was induced to remain as leader by the
unanimous voice of the party, and after four
years' service had the satisfaction of seeing it
heartily reunited. In Ontario, where Sir Wilfrid,
at the opening of the poll in 1900 had a majority
of twelve, I reversed that, and at the close of
the poll had a majority of eighteen seats, but
not enough to counteract the Liberal landslide
in the Province of Quebec. In that election I
sustained my first personal defeat, as I devoted
nearly all my time to the campaign in Ontario.
It is only right to say that I refused an offer to
be returned with a Liberal candidate in Cape
Breton county without a contest, and that
provision was to be made for my Conservative
colleague, Mr. Macdougall.

Lost Office, but not Power

" Although we lost office we did not lose
power, as we had the pleasure of seeing the
protective policy, which had been bitterly op-

164

Conservative Defeat

posed by the Liberals, adopted by them as the
only means of remaining on the Treasury benches.
When the South African War broke out, Sir
Wilfrid Laurier declared his inability to do any-
thing to aid the British Government. I pressed
him in the strongest manner, and pledged him
the support of my party to the policy of sending
a Canadian contingent. I was fortunately able
to induce him to change his attitude in regard
to that important question.

" While my son, Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper,
one of the ablest men in the House of Commons,
after twenty-two years' service — including eight
years in the Ministry — was obliged, on personal
grounds, to practically abandon public life, he
had the satisfaction of proposing Hon. R. L.
Borden as leader of the Opposition. Mr. Borden
gave me able and effective support in the House
for four years. I need not say that his subse-
quent action as leader of the Conservative party
in Opposition, and his triumphant course as
Prime Minister, has been a source of intense
satisfaction to myself. Under Mr. Borden's
administration Canada has attained a higher
position in Great Britain than it had ever before
reached. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, I need not say,
is a gentleman of great personal attraction and
brilliant eloquence, and I cannot but regret that
he was ever induced to abandon his protectionist

165

Sir Charles Tupper

principles, which also caused him to meet with
defeat in the constituency he first represented
when awarded a portfolio in 1876.

Newfoundland and Canada

" I have always attached great importance to
the inclusion of Newfoundland within the
Dominion of Canada, and many years ago Sir
John Macdonald, who entirely agreed with me
on that subject, asked me to call at Newfoundland
on my way from England. This I did. On that
occasion I had a meeting with all the leading
men of the Opposition and a full discussion with
the Government of the colony. I submitted the
terms on which I was willing to recommend
union. Objections were raised in Newfoundland,
and the matter was left in abeyance.

" The last time I saw Hon. Mr. Bond, a former
Premier, while attending the Imperial Conference
in London, he said to me : ' If you or your son
had been at Halifax when the conference with
the representatives of Sir Mackenzie Bowell took
place, our island would now form part of the
Confederation. We told the Canadian delegates
that if they would give us the terms proposed by
you we would join the union, but to this they
would not agree.'

" I have no hesitation in saying that Canada
to-day would be justified in immensely increas-

166

Conservative Defeat

ing those terms to provide for the complete
consolidation of all of the British possessions in
North America, and I hope, in the interest of
both, to see such an arrangement carried out.

" While the Confederation of British North
America in 1867 was sustained by both parties
in England, there is reason to believe that many
public men in both parties regarded it as a
stepping-stone in getting rid of any responsibility
connected with Canada. Now, after the lapse
of years, it is very gratifying to know that at
this moment an overwhelming change has taken
place in the sentiments of their successors, and
the time has come when all parties in Great
Britain recognize the vital importance of main-
taining the solidarity of the Empire," continued
Sir Charles. " Canada has already established
preferential trade with New Zealand and South
Africa, and there seems to be little doubt of the
ultimate success of negotiations for a similar
arrangement with Australia.

Unionists and Food Taxes

" I confess I cannot understand the recent
difficulties encountered by the Unionist party in
England in relation to the taxes on food. In
my opinion the question was effectually dis-
posed of by the proposal to limit, the impost on
foreign foodstuffs to two shillings a quarter.

167

Sir Charles Tapper

All the statistics available at Mark Lane estab-
lished beyond controversy that no such impost
on flour and wheat, while giving a preference to
the Dominions and tending to stimulate settle-
ment of agricultural areas and increase the
production of bread-stuffs, would ever adversely
affect the price of bread in Great Britain.

' This preference would be of inestimable
advantage to Canada in one other respect. I
mean that it would remove any annexationist
sentiment that might linger in the minds of the
millions of Americans who are pouring into
Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

" While it is impossible to say what the
political result may be when at no distant day
the population of Canada will exceed that of
the Mother Country, the movement towards the
complete consolidation of Great Britain and the
great outlying dominions will steadily increase.
Looking at the climatic conditions, resources and
geographical situation of Canada, I cannot but
think that the future will show that the men of
the north will be the dominating power on this
continent," added the aged baronet in prophetic
tones.

:c Coal is a great factor in national greatness.
Unlike our neighbours, we have inexhaustible
areas of it, not only on the Atlantic and Pacific,
but inland in the western provinces from the

168

Conservative Defeat

boundary line to the shores of the Arctic. We
likewise have abundance of natural gas and a
wide distribution of the precious metals, with
vast regions scarcely prospected.

" In her fisheries Canada has also an un-
rivalled asset. We have a wheat-growing area
which is being steadily extended north to the
Mackenzie River basin, and a fertile soil adapted
for the production of all other kinds of cereals
and grains, as well as boundless forests. Our
natural resources, in a relative sense, have scarcely
been touched. Profiting by the experience of
older nations, I am glad to see that conservation
methods are being adopted. Our water powers
are unsurpassed. They are being harnessed to
operate our factories, tramway cars and railway
systems, and in time to drive all our industrial
machinery."

169

X

EMPIRE CONSOLIDATION

RESUMING his reminiscences and fore-
casts Sir Charles Tupper said :—
" The consolidation of the Empire
on the basis of mutual preferential trade is
coming sooner than most people imagine. A
good start has already been made, and Canada
will share in all those advantages. The history
of the movement is not uninteresting.

" In 1879 a delegation consisting of Sir John
A. Macdonald, Sir Leonard Tilley, Minister of
Customs, and myself — then Minister of Railways
— visited England. On that occasion we sub-
mitted a proposition to Sir Michael Hicks Beach,
then Secretary of State for the Colonies. The
proposition I referred to concluded in these
words :

" The Government of Canada is prepared,
under arrangements with the Imperial Govern-
ment, and with the assent of the Canadian
Parliament, to give distinct trade advantages
to great Britain as against foreign countries, and

170

Empire Consolidation

they have sought to do so to a limited extent, in
their arrangement of the present tariff ; but,
believing that the Imperial Government were
not favourable to direct discriminating duties,
the object in view was sought and obtained
through a somewhat complex classification of
imports.

" c The policy of Canada towards British
manufactures is not, therefore, such as to exclude
them from our markets, but points to an arrange-
ment such as, if adopted, might give us sufficient
for revenue purposes, and at the same time be
of infinite advantage to the Empire.'

" Our efforts were unfortunately unsuccessful.

Back to '84

" When the late Right Hon. W. KFgpter.
the founder of the Imperial Federation League,
called upon me to discuss the question of Imperial
Federation in 1884, I told him that the most
careful consideration I had been able to give
to the subject led me to the conclusion that the
means of drawing the Mother Country and the
colonies more closely, and binding them together
for all time would have to be found in such fiscal
arrangements as, I was satisfied, could be made,
by which the outlying portions of the Empire
would be treated by that great country on a
different footing from foreign countries. His

171

Sir Charles Tupper

reply was : ' Well, I am a Free Trader, but I am
not so fanatical a Free Trader that I should not
be perfectly willing to adopt such a policy as
that for the great and important work of binding
this great Empire together.'

" On January 19th, 1888, Mr. Alexander
McNeill, M.P. for North Bruce, made an eloquent
speech in favour of a discriminatory tariff
throughout the British Empire, and on February
1st the Toronto branch of the Imperial Federa-
tion League was organized.

" In 1889 I was invited to express my opinion
at the annual dinner of the Imperial Federation
League, of which I was not then a member. In
my speech I said : —

" c I am afraid that you will not be able to
maintain public interest in the League much
longer, unless you propound some practical
policy for promoting the unity of the Empire,
which is your avowed object. I, therefore,
venture to suggest that a conference might be
called by the Imperial Government of represen-
tatives of the self-governing colonies to consider
the best means of promoting that object, and
I am inclined to the opinion that when a con-
ference takes place it will be found that the
adoption of a policy of mutual preferential
trade between Great Britain and her colonies
would provide the tie of mutual self-interest in

172

Empire Consolidation

addition to the purely sentimental bond which
now exists.'

Interesting Correspondence

" I became a member of the League, and Lord
Rosebery — who was then President — consulted
with the Prime Minister on the subject. I may
say that my suggestion in favour of preferential
trade between Great Britain and the Colonies
met with unfriendly criticism in an unexpected
quarter, as will be seen by the following corre-
spondence : —

" ' LES ROCHEES, ST. PATRICK,
" ' RIVIERE DU LOUP,

"'August 14th, 1889.

" * MY DEAR TUPPER,-

" ' Your speech on Federation has excited
much attention in Canada and a good deal of
dissatisfaction in Quebec.

" ' The manner in which it has been treated
by the English Press generally, which will insist
that you have spoken the opinions of the Cana-
dian Government, and, as if by its authority,
has aroused the suspicions of the French, and
makes me look forward to some unpleasant
discussions in our Parliament. The Opposition
will oppose, of course, and they will attempt to
make cause with the French, and may carry a
vote against (1) Imperial Federation, and (2) a

173

Sir Charles Tupper

conference as proposed by you. It would be
well, I think, for you to let it be known as widely
as possible that you spoke your own opinions,
and not in any way as High Commissioner.
" ' Yours faithfully,

" ' J. A. MACDONALD.'

" To this I replied as follows :—

66 ' 9 VICTORIA CHAMBERS,
" ' LONDON, S.W.

'"September 13th, 1889.

" ' MY DEAR SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD, —

" ' I have been much surprised to learn
that my action in regard to Imperial Federation
has excited a good deal of dissatisfaction in
Quebec. I send you herewith a detailed report
of all the proceedings in this connection, and am
satisfied that after reading what has taken place,
you will agree with me that my action has been
quite misunderstood by our Quebec friends.
You are aware of the fact that, although__y ou
and two other members of the Government are
on 1^ council oJ^tKe^^perial FederationlLeague,
I have stood somewhat aloof. Ihave not dis-
guised the opinion that the difficulties in the
way of a parliamentary federation were in-
superable.

" c When I proposed that a conference should
be invited to consider the practicability of

174

Empire Consolidation

adopting a fiscal policy by which colonial pro-
ducts would be protected here against those
coming from foreign countries, I only propounded
a policy which I had avowed as the policy of our
party when in Opposition, and which you and
Sir Leonard Tilley and myself subsequently
formulated and submitted to the Colonial Minis-
ter. As I said in my speech, I expected it would
have the hearty support of every well-wisher of
Canada, involving as it did a policy that would
rapidly bring millions of capital and hundreds
of thousands of agriculturists to make Canada
blossom as a rose. Had I made this proposition
on behalf of Canada, I would have had some
ground for doing so, but I did not. At the
special meeting of the council, as you will see by
the reference to the appendix in this letter, I
said : " I do not in any way represent the
Government of Canada, but simply express my
own views and opinions with regard to this
question." Lord Rosebery emphasized that
statement by saying at the same meeting :
" Sir Charles Tupper expressly disclaims speak-
ing in an official capacity, or as a representative
of the Canadian Government."

" ' I do not see how I can well do more to
counteract the erroneous impression that I
spoke in an official capacity, but I will not fail
to take any suitable opportunity of relieving

175

Sir Charles Tupper

you and your colleagues of any share of the
responsibility of my utterances. When I made
this bold proposal to strengthen the tie that
connects Canada with the Crown by taxing corn
and cattle from the United States of America
and all other foreign countries — for such in
effect it was — I had little idea that it would be
received with such favour here or be so completely
misunderstood in Canada. It not only involves
no change in the constitution of our country,
but substitutes an alternative that ought cer-
tainly to commend itself to all who are opposed
to such a change.

" c Yours faithfully,

" ' CHARLES TUPPER.'

" To this letter Sir John Macdonald replied as
follows : —

" ' OTTAWA,

"'September 28tk, 1889.

" c MY DEAR TUPPER,-

" ' I have your semi-official letter of the
13th inst. With respect to the Imperial Federa-
tion matter, you have taken the matter too
much au serieux. I thought it well to write you,
as Langevin became nervous, not so much at
the remarks made in the Opposition papers here,
as at the quotations from the English Press
which were widely disseminated by the Opposi-

176

Empire Consolidation

tion. These English papers expressly stated
that, although you declared that you did not
speak for the Canadian Government, you would
not have so spoken unless from instructions.
The Quebecers here have got into their heads
that your proposal that a general conference
should be held, involved the discussion of the
expediency of altering the British North America
Act. This, though unfounded, caused some
alarm. I have read your letter in council, and
discussed the whole question, and I think we
shall not hear anything more about it.
" ' Yours faithfully,

" ' JOHN A. MACDONALD.'

" In reply to a deputation of the Imperial
Federation League in June, 1891, Lord Salis-
bury said : ' I think we are almost come to the
time when schemes should be proposed. You
have stated a problem ... I might almost call
it an enigma. We are to invite the Colonies to
share in the responsibilities and privileges of
the Empire in such a manner as not to disturb
the constitution of this country, or that which
is enjoyed by the Colonies. The solution of this
problem does not lie on the face of it ; it will
require the labour of many able brains before a
satisfactory solution is arrived at. The matter
is one not for vague and uncommitting sentiment,
N 177

Sir Charles Tupper

but for hard thinking and close examination,
and for the utmost effort that the highest and
strongest intellect of our times can give to a
problem in which the Empire is concerned.'

" It was in these circumstances that at a large
meeting of the Imperial Federation League held
at the Westminster Palace Hotel on June 17th,
1891, 1 made this motion, which was unanimously
adopted : ' That a certain carefully selected
committee be appointed to submit to the council
a scheme for the consideration of the organiza-
tions of the League throughout the Empire by
which the objects of Imperial Federation may
be realized.'

Belgian and German Treaties

" I took up the question of the Belgian and
German treaties with my colleagues representing
in Britain the various self-governing colonies,
and we sent the following communication to
the Secretary of State for the Colonies : —

" 6 LONDON,

" < November ZQth, 1 890.

" ' MY LORD,

" ' We desire to thank your lordship for
the intimation conveyed us in Mr. Bramston's
letter of the 10th inst., that the committee
appointed to consider the approaching expiry
etc., of various European commercial treaties,
have expressed their concurrence in the view

178

Empire Consolidation

that the Colonies should have the opportunity
of stating their views respecting the effect of
the various European treaties.

" ' In accordance with your lordship's request,
we take the opportunity of stating, for the in-
formation of the committee, that we are all of
the opinion that the treaties with Belgium and
Germany of 1862 and 1865, respectively, should
be terminated as soon as possible, in order that
Great Britain may be in the position of being
able at any time to make closer commercial
arrangements with the Colonies, or any of them,
without being subject to the restrictions that are
contained in those treaties. We venture to think
that the importance of the matter is one that
cannot be overrated, whether regarded from
the colonial standpoint or from that of Great
Britain.

" ' We consider also that the principle should
now be formally conceded by Her Majesty's
Government — which has been accepted in many
cases in recent years — that no commercial treaty
should in future be binding upon the Colonies
without their assent, but that every such treaty
should contain a clause enabling the Colonies to
participate in its provisions, or not, as they may
desire.'

" The movement we thus launched did not
attain its objects until 1897."

179

Sir Charles Tupper

Imperial Trade

Meantime Colonel Sir Howard Vincent, M.P.,
founded the United Empire Trade League in
conjunction with Rt. Hon. James Lowther, M.P.,
which worked energetically and indefatigably
in favour of the development of trade between
all parts of the British Empire upon mutually
advantageous terms and upon a preferential
basis. In 1889 a conference was held at Ottawa,
where representatives from Australia and South
Africa met the Government of Canada at their
invitation, and at which the Imperial Govern-
ment was represented by the Earl of Jersey. At
this conference a resolution was carried in favour
of mutual preferential trade.

" Immediately after assuming the office of
Prime Minister in 1896, I delivered an address
before the Board of Trade and Chamber of
Commerce in Montreal in favour of preferential
trade, and made that policy a principal feature of
my appeal to the country. The Toronto * Globe,'
the organ of the Liberal party, came out in
strong opposition to the preferential trade policy,
but it aroused great enthusiasm in Ontario, and
the leader of the Opposition — now Sir Wilfrid
Laurier — finding the " heather on fire " declared
to the electors at London, Ont., that he was as
strongly in favour of that policy as myself, and

180

Empire Consolidation

pledged himself to do all in his power to carry it
out ; so it ceased to be an issue.

" After my defeat in 1896, Sir Wilfrid and his
majority, for eighteen years, knowing that they
could not retain power if they did anything to
weaken the protection of Canadian industries,
maintained a clause giving a reduction to any
country whose tariff was as favourable to
Canada as that of Canada to them. They main-
tained that such a reduction would only apply
to Great Britain, but they found, as I told them
in Parliament, that owing to the Belgian and
German treaties, England could not enjoy the
proposed reduction, while several other countries
could.

Conference of 1897

" When the conference of 1897 took place,
Mr. Chamberlain said that if the premiers of all
the Colonies joined in asking the denunciation
of those treaties it would be done. They passed
a unanimous resolution, and the treaties in
question were denounced. Canada then enacted
a reduction in favour of Great Britain (eo nomine).
Subsequently, when Sir Michael Hicks Beach
re-enacted the registration duties, Sir Wilfrid
Laurier and Hon. Mr. Fielding informed the
Imperial Government that if these and any
similar duties were remitted to Canada they

181

Sir Charles Tupper

would increase the preference already given,
and if this were not done they would consider
themselves at liberty to withdraw the preference
already given. Unfortunately Hon. Mr. Ritchie,
the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, abolished
these duties, although they had given the
Treasury over $2,500,000 without increasing the
price of bread.

" On May 16th, 1903, Mr. Chamberlain made
a speech strongly favouring preferential treat-
ment of the Colonies, and a year later that
distinguished and patriotic statesman resigned
his high office and consecrated his unrivalled
talents to the promotion of tariff reform and
the consolidation of the Empire by preferential
trade. From that hour, the cause of this great
fiscal policy has steadily advanced. The last
meeting of the chambers of commerce of the
Empire had declared in its favour, and the great
Unionist party stands pledged to make tariff
reform its first constructive policy, and to secure
the unity of the Empire by responding to the
demands of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and
South Africa for mutual preferential trade."

Federating the Empire

Sir Charles contributed an article, " Federat-
ing the Empire; a Colonial Plan," to the
" Nineteenth Century " for October, 1891. That

182

Empire Consolidation

he spoke as a prophet is indicated by the follow-
ing extract : —

" Having examined the subject in all its details,
and having devoted a great deal of thought and
consideration to it, I believe that the solution of
what I am afraid Lord Salisbury considers an
insoluble enigma will be found in that direction.
I regard the time as near at hand when the great
provinces of Australasia will be confederated
under one Government. I consider that a most
vitally important movement, not only to those
Colonies but to the Empire itself, because it is
in that direction that I look for a great advance
with regard to Imperial Federation. I know
there may be differences of opinion on that point ;
but I believe that, great as are the difficulties
which lie in the way of inducing provinces to
give up their autonomy and merge themselves
in a larger body in which they may be over-
weighted, the advantages and necessities to
Australasia of being united under one central
Government are so great that they will steadily
overcome all obstacles which stand in the way
of such a movement.

66 When this has been done," the article con-
tinues, " it will be followed, I doubt not, at a
very early day by a similar course on the part
of South Africa, and then we shall stand in the
position of having three great dominions, com-

183

Sir Charles Tupper

monwealths, or realms, or whatever name is
found most desirable on the part of the people
who adopt them — three great British communi-
ties, each under one central and strong Govern-
ment. When that is accomplished, the measure
which the Marquis of Lome has suggested, of
having the representatives of these Colonies
during the term of their office here in London,
practically Cabinet Ministers, will give to the
Government of England an opportunity of learn-
ing in the most direct and complete manner the
views and sentiments of each of those great
British communities in regard to all questions of
foreign policy affecting the colonies.

" I would suggest that the representatives of
those three great British communities here in
London should be leading members of the Cabinet
of the day of the country they represent, going
out of office when their Government is changed.
In that way they would always represent the
country, and necessarily the views of the party
in power in Canada, in Australia, and in South
Africa. That would involve no constitutional
changes ; it would simply require that whoever
represented those dominions in London should
have a seat in their own parliament, and be a
member of the Administration.

184

Empire Consolidation

Advantages of the Plan

" It requires no material alteration in the
constitution of this country and it would be found
entirely practicable to provide that when a
member of the Cabinet of Australasia, of South
Africa, or of Canada represented it in London,
he should ex-officio be sworn a member of the
Privy Council in England, and practically be-
come a Cabinet Minister here, or at any rate
should be in a position to be called upon to meet
the Cabinet on every question of foreign policy,
or, at all events, when any question that touched
a colonial interest was being considered. In that
way their Governments would be brought in
perfect rapport with the Imperial Government.
And the advantage would be twofold ; they
would have the opportunity of addressing to the
whole Cabinet the views that animated the
Governments of their Colonies, and they would
have the advantage of learning fully the views
of the Government of this country, and in that
way be able to communicate its sentiments more
perfectly to their respective Colonies.

" I do not doubt that in almost every instance
Her Majesty's Government would have their
united support on any question of foreign policy
that touched a colonial interest. They would
thus have the most enthusiastic support of those

185

Sir Charles Tupper

three great subsidiary Governments forming a
complete whole. In that way I believe that,
while they would be quite unable to overrule
the Government charged with the administration
of public affairs in Great Britain, they would be
able so to represent their views as to give them
all the weight to which they are entitled. I
think that would fully meet the views of the out-
lying portions of the Empire, giving them, as
it would, an opportunity of expressing their
opinions and of exercising their influence in
relation to questions of foreign policy."

Changes in Thirty Years

" The national evolution of Canada in its
diplomatic position has undergone many im-
portant changes during the past thirty years,"
remarked the Grand Old Man, in reply to another
question. " The Canadian Government in 1879,
having appointed Sir A. T. Gait High Com-
missioner for Canada in London, applied to Her
Majesty's Government to have him appointed a
commissioner where treaties were being nego-
tiated in which Canada was interested.

" Sir Michael Hicks Beach, then Secretary of
State, in a despatch to Lord Lome, said : ' In
reply I have to inform you that it is not thought
desirable to appoint a Canadian commissioner
to take part in the negotiation of any treaty,

186

Empire Consolidation

but if your Government desire to send a person
enjoying their confidence to advise with Her
Majesty's Government, or with the British
ambassador, on any questions that may arise
during the negotiations, Her Majesty's Govern-
ment will be happy to give attention to his
representations.'

" Having been appointed to succeed Sir A. T.
Gait, I took up the question with Lord Derby,
Secretary of State for the Colonies, and with the
assistance of Lord Fitzmaurice, who was then
Under-Secretary in the Foreign Office, and of
the late Sir C. M. Kennedy, then at the head of
the commercial department of that office, I
obtained for Canada the right to negotiate
commercial treaties with foreign countries. The
Foreign Office sent a letter, dated July 26th, 1884,
containing the following extract : ' If the
Spanish Government are favourably disposed,
the full power for these negotiations will be given
to Sir Robert Morier and Sir Charles Tupper
jointly. The actual negotiations would probably
be conducted by Sir Charles Tupper, but the
convention, if concluded, must be signed by both
plenipotentiaries.' In 1893 I negotiated in this
manner, in conjunction with the Marquess of
Dufferin and Ava, a commercial treaty between
France and Canada.

" The first and only time that a Canadian

187

Sir Charles Tupper

representative took a position independent of
Great Britain was at the International Congress
for the protection of submarine cables held at
Paris in 1883. Twenty-five Powers were in
attendance. I represented the Dominion, and
at one session, when an important point was
being discussed, I voted against all my British
colleagues. The next day Sir Charles Kennedy,
one of the British delegates, asked for a recon-
sideration of the question. This was agreed to
and the British delegation voted as I did, having
in the meantime consulted the Foreign Office.
' We were all of the same opinion as yourself at
the first discussion, but voted in accordance with
the views of Lord Lyons, the British ambassa-
dor,' Sir Charles Kennedy remarked to me after-
wards."

188

XI

THE FISHERIES TREATY

f~ ""^HE veteran statesman also revealed a
good deal of interesting and hitherto
M unwritten inside history respecting the
negotiations with the United States in connec-
tion with the Chamberlain Fisheries Treaty of
1888. That the role he played in that matter
was regarded as an important one, and that his
proposals resulted in a settlement of a vexatious
dispute, is evidenced by the fact that he was
shortly afterwards created a baronet by Her
Majesty, Queen Victoria. Full credit for sug-
gesting a basis of settlement was given to him
by Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, his fellow-
plenipotentiary, in official despatches sent to the
Foreign Office, which are still extant.

66 In 1868, as a delegate of the Canadian
Government, after a sharp struggle, aided by the
Colonial Secretary, the Duke of Buckingham, I
succeeded in inducing the Right Hon. Col.
Stanley, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, to
concur in the views of the Canadian Govern-

189

Sir Charles Tupper

ment as to the protection of our Atlantic coast
fisheries. That was the year following the action
of the United States in denouncing the Elgin
reciprocity treaty of 1854. Our first step was
to double the licence for fishing in our waters,
and to seize their vessels for violation of the
law," said Sir Charles. " This vindication of our
rights resulted in the treaty of 1871, which allowed
the free entry of our fish in the United States,
and provided for an international arbitration.

" After adjudication and hearing of evidence,
the arbitrators awarded to Canada about $500,000
annually as compensation for the fish caught in
Canadian waters by United States fishermen.
When in 1883 this treaty was abrogated by the
United States, Canada had no alternative but to
protect her rights under the treaty of 1818.
The result was a hue and cry throughout the
United States. The Republican and Democratic
Press joined in denunciation of Canada for its
alleged cruelty to their fishermen.

Tupper at Washington

" When Hon. Mr. Bayard was Secretary of
State I visited him in 1887 in Washington, at
his request, to discuss the relations of the two
countries. He met me with the frank declara-
tion : ' Well, Sir Charles, the confederation of
Canada and the construction of the Canadian

190

The Fisheries Treaty

Pacific Railway have brought us face to face
with a nation, and we may as well discuss public
questions from that point of view.' I at once
perceived that he, at all events, recognized the
fact that those great measures had disposed of the
question of our political absorption.

" After my return to Ottawa we had a friendly
correspondence, copies of which were given to
Sir John A. Macdonald and to Lord Lansdowne,
Governor-General. Lord Lansdowne in turn
communicated with the Colonial Office. The
result was an arrangement for a conference at
which all outstanding questions between the
two countries, including the Behring Sea seal
fisheries, the Alaska boundary line and the
Atlantic fisheries were to be discussed, and, if
possible, disposed of. I advised the Imperial
Government to select Sir John Macdonald as
fellow-plenipotentiary to act with Rt. Hon.
Joseph Chamberlain. Sir John would not hear
of this proposal and insisted that I should go, so
I was appointed one of the joint British pleni-
potentiaries to negotiate the proposed treaty.
My other colleague was Sir Lionel Sackville West,
British minister at Washington.

" Hon. Mr. Bayard, who afterwards served as
American ambassador at the court of St. James,
Mr. (now Judge) Putnam of Massachusetts and
Professor Angell of Michigan, represented the

191

Sir Charles Tupper

United States. The negotiations occupied several
months. We had no sooner got to work than
Bayard's attitude underwent a complete change
and the scope of our discussions became greatly
restricted. Simultaneously the leading American
newspapers attacked me personally, asserting
that there was no hope of a treaty being negoti-
ated as I was so exigent in my demands on behalf
of Canada.

Chamberlain and Bayard

" No progress was made for weeks, and Mr.
Chamberlain and I were negotiating in diplo-
matic parlance for the best ground to break up
on, when an idea occurred to me which I lost no
time in communicating to my colleague. I ad-
vised him to write to Mr. Bayard a letter asking
for a private interview at the Bayard home, and
to then and there tell the American diplomat of
the anxiety of the British Government to negoti-
ate a treaty. I further suggested that my col-
league should submit two or three points, stating
that if the United States agreed to them he would
go down to Ottawa to endeavour to obtain the
agreement and consent of the Dominion Govern-
ment thereto, and thus avert the breaking off of
the negotiations.

" Mr. Chamberlain had the private interview
with Mr. Bayard, who looked on the proposition

192

The Fisheries Treaty

with favour, and who lost no time in obtaining
the concurrence of President Cleveland. This
disposed of a very unpleasant situation. Negotia-
tions were resumed after the Christmas holidays,
and a treaty, settling the dispute over the Atlan-
tic fisheries, was signed by all the plenipotenti-
aries of both countries.

" The treaty was sent to the Senate by Presi-
dent Cleveland, with the declaration that it was
a fair and just settlement of the question, to-
gether with a modus vivendi offered by the
British plenipotentiaries to provide for the in-
terim pending the ratification of the treaty by
Congress and the Dominion House of Commons.
The United States Senate having a Republican
majority, which was unwilling to give the
Democratic party any advantage in the impending
presidential election, rejected the treaty. " We
cannot allow the Democrats to take credit for
settling so important a dispute,' a leading
Republican senator told me at the time, in
justifying the attitude to be taken by his party.

The Queen Honours Tupper

" I consider withal that the British won a
great diplomatic victory, as the treaty and
modus vivendi provided that everything that the
United States had declared to be theirs by right,
under the treaty of 1818, was to be enjoyed for
o 193

Sir Charles Tupper

a quid pro quo. I returned to Ottawa and carried
the treaty through the House of Commons by
a unanimous vote, and an act giving effect to
the modus vivendi was also passed.

" This last-mentioned measure, based on the
modus vivendi, gave American fishermen certain
privileges, such as buying bait in Canadian
harbours, and buying supplies and the trans-
shipment of fish caught outside the three-mile
limit. The modus vivendi, despite the rejection
of the treaty by the United States Senate, served
an admirable purpose, as it removed all feeling
and bickering between the two countries in
regard to the Atlantic fisheries.

" It was renewed by Canada from year to year,
and only became inoperative years afterwards,
when the Hague tribunal arbitrated the question
of the interpretation of the treaty of 1818 and
effected a lasting settlement. Hon. A. B. Ayles-
worth, Minister of Justice in the Laurier adminis-
tration, represented Canada at the arbitration,
and afterwards — in the House of Commons — de-
clared that the basis of settlement of the ques-
tion was the treaty we negotiated at Washington
in 1888. It should also not be forgotten that
although defeated in the presidential election,
President Cleveland polled 100,000 more votes
than his successful opponent, Benjamin Harrison,
who in his subsequent address declared that the

194

The Fisheries Treaty

modus Vivendi had removed all irritation between
Canada and the United States."

The Imperial Government expected that re-
sult. This is indicated by an official letter Lord
Salisbury, then Prime Minister, wrote to Sir
Charles Tupper. The original communication is
as follows : —

" LONDON,

"August 24th, 1888.

" DEAR SIR CHARLES, —

" I have great pleasure in being authorized
to inform you that the Queen has been pleased
to confer upon you the honour of a baronetcy
in token of her appreciation of the good service
you rendered to her and to the Empire at the
recent conference at Washington. The value of
that service will not be affected in the end by
the untoward conclusion to which the discussion
of the present Senate at Washington has come.
" Believe me,

" Yours very truly,

" SALISBURY.

"Sir Charles Tupper."

Relations were Strained

How strained were the relations between
Canada and the United States prior to the
negotiations at Washington may be gathered
from the speech of Sir Charles in moving the

195

Sir Charles Tupper

adoption of the treaty in the House of Commons
on April 10th, 1888. The following extract tells
the whole story :

" I have told you what position Canada
stood in with regard to the United States before
the initiation of these proceedings. I have told
you that we stood face to face with an enact-
ment which had been put on the statute-book
by a unanimous vote of Congress, ratified by
the President, providing for non-intercourse
between the United States and Canada. I need
not tell you that that Bill meant commercial war,
that it meant not only the ordinary suspension
of friendly feeling and intercourse between the
two countries, but that it involved much more
than that.

" If that Bill had been brought into opera-
tion by the proclamation of the President of the
United States, I have no hesitation in saying
that we should have stood in relation to that
great country in a state of commerical war, and
the line is very narrow which separates a com-
mercial war between two countries from an
actual war. Speaking a year ago, I pointed out
in my remarks, with a view to prevent the pos-
sibility of such an act going into force, all the
advantages that in our present position we could
avail ourselves of to protect ourselves against
such an unfriendly act on the part of the United

196

The Fisheries Treaty

States. I then said it would be a mad act, and
I say so now.

" No man who knows anything of the intimate
commercial relations which exist between Canada
and the United States could contemplate such
an act going into operation without feeling that
it would tear up from the foundation those
intimate and social relations which exist between
these two countries, which in friendly com-
mercial rivalry are making a rapid progress
which has attracted the attention of the civilized
world. It would produce a condition of things
the end of which no man could foresee. If that
act had been adopted, we had no means of
looking to any increased commercial intercourse
between that great country and the Dominion
of Canada.

" Under those circumstances it behoved the
Government of Canada to adopt any means in
its power to avert such a disaster, which great
as it would have been to Canada, would have
been still greater to the United States. But it
would be a very poor compensation that the
companion in misfortune was suffering more
than we suffered ourselves. We found Congress
putting on the statute-book a direction to the
President that, on the first United States vessel
being seized or harassed, or refused the advantages
to which they said they were entitled, he, as the

197

Sir Charles Tupper

executive of that country, should put that Non-
intercourse Act into force.

" That was the condition of affairs when I
went down last Easter to see Mr. Bayard at
Washington. If you compare the condition of
things to-day with the condition of things which
existed then, there is no man, I care not how
partisan he may be, how unfriendly to this
Government he may be, who can judicially look
at the position of this question then and now,
without coming to the conclusion that we have
emerged from midnight darkness into the light
of day under the auspices of this treaty."

Many tributes have been paid by writers in
both hemispheres to this grand old statesman —
now nearing his ninety-second birthday — one of
which may well be quoted here : " The two aims
he always kept in view," said one who knew him
well, " as a loyal subject to his Queen and as a
jealous guardian of the honour of his people,
have been the strengthening of the golden link
which connects Great Britain with the first and
greatest of her colonies, and the holding aloft of
the standard of right of the nation, so that she
may prove herself worthy of the proud position
she has made her own."

198

APPENDIX

SIR CHARLES TUPPER'S FIVE-HOUR SPEECH ON THE
RAILWAY POLICY OF THE MACKENZIE GOVERNMENT

Revised Hansard, April 21st,

Mr. Tupper (in Committee of Supply). — Mr. Speaker,
in rising to make the motion of which I gave notice to
the House, I may say, at the outset, that I intend, so
far as possible, in the remarks I shall have to make in
reference to this very important question, to endeavour
to pursue the course which the hon. the First Minister
marked out for himself in the observations he addressed
to the House on this subject yesterday. He said he
intended to deal with the subject, apart from considera-
tions of a party or political character. Now, I am
afraid it will not be in my power altogether to pursue
that course ; but in dealing with a question of such
magnitude as the policy of the Government in regard
to the great national work of the country, I will confine
myself, as much as I can, to a statement of the facts
in regard to the course pursued by the Government as
they present themselves to my mind, and, so far as
may be possible, without drawing into the considera-
tion of the question anything calculated to turn the
attention of the House aside from the real merits of the
subject under discussion. It is fortunate that, at the
outset, both parties are able to agree as to one point —
that is, not only to the importance, but, I may add,

199

Sir Charles Tupper

the necessity of the construction of the Canadian Pacific
Railway. The hon. the First Minister has himself, on
more than one occasion, given to the House his own
emphatic opinion that the construction of this work was
a matter of the gravest public necessity. It is quite
impossible for any person to look at the position that
Canada occupies without arriving at that conclusion.
We had obtained possession of a vast and magnificent
country — the fertile prairies of the North-West- — and it
became at once apparent that if that boundless field
for cultivation and for settlement, a country in extent
and fertility not to be surpassed by any country on the
face of the globe, were to be utilized and made to sub-
serve the interests of Canada as it ought to subserve
them, means of rapid and easy intercommunication
between the old and settled parts of Canada and that
fertile section of country, the prairies of the North-West,
should be established as early as possible. Then, when
we came to look at the position which British Columbia
occupied, the necessity became still greater. The im-
portance of adding British Columbia to the consolidated
British North American Provinces comprised in the
Dominion of Canada, requires no argument at my hands.
It was only necessary to look at the position Columbia
occupied, extending along a considerable portion of the
Pacific coast and lying in proximity to our neighbours
to the south of the line, to see that, if we were to derive
the advantages desirable, that if this country was to
obtain the consolidation that was necessary it was cer-
tainly necessary that, at as early a period as possible,
a line of railway should be established from one end of
this country to the other, uniting and consolidating it.
It was under that impression that the construction of a
Canadian Pacific Railway became a part of the policy
of the late Government. It is quite true, that measures
had been suggested, and suggested by parties from that

200

Appendix

Province, which, while involving the necessity for the
construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, deferred
to a more remote period the accomplishment of the
work ; but when the Government came to examine
and investigate the whole of that question, they came
to the conclusion that the most economical mode — the
mode most advantageous to the interests of British
Columbia, as well as of all Canada — would be to enter
upon that work, and, if possible, secure as far as the
means of the country would permit, the construction
of that railway as promptly as was possible. A great
deal has been said with regard to the arrangements
made on that occasion. It would not have been neces-
sary for me at this time to direct the attention of the
House for a single instant to the legislation which has
taken place, or to the proceedings in Parliament in
reference to this question, but for a statement, which,
I am sure, was inadvertently made by the hon. the
First Minister on a former occasion — that down to 1873
no scheme for the construction of the Canadian Pacific
Railway had been propounded. The House will re-
member that on the 1st of April, 1871 (and I will only
turn to public records in regard to these matters, if
hon. gentlemen should question the statement I am
making to the House), the address containing the terms
of union between British Columbia and Canada was
passed in this House. Hon. members will remember
that during the progress of the discussion on the ques-
tion of the terms upon which British Columbia should
be admitted as a part of this Dominion, great exception
was taken to the undertaking, that the surveys for the
railway should be immediately commenced, vigorously
prosecuted and the road itself constructed within ten
years. After a good deal of controversy in regard to
this matter, the late lamented Sir George Cartier, who
was then leading the House in the absence of the right

201

Sir Charles Tupper

hon. member for Kingston, who was then in Washington,
with a view to set at rest all doubts on that point, and
to remove from the minds of every person any mis-
apprehension or fear that the financial position of the
country would be too seriously involved by undertaking
to carry out so great a work, moved a resolution de-
nning the terms and limiting distinctly the engagement
we were undertaking. That resolution declared that
the road should only be constructed as a private under-
taking, that all the Government had to do was to provide
a grant of land and of money such as the ability of the
country would enable it to give, and that the construc-
tion of the work should not involve an increase in the
rate of taxation. I will read the resolution to the
House, in order that its terms may be distinctly under-
stood. It is as follows : —

" That the railway referred to in the Address to Her
Majesty, concerning the Union of British Columbia with
Canada, adopted by this House on Saturday, the 1st of
April, instant, should be constructed and worked by
private enterprise and not by the Dominion Govern-
ment ; and that the public aid to be given to secure that
undertaking should consist of such liberal grants of
land and such subsidy in money or other aid, not
unduly pressing on the industries and resources of the
Dominion, as the Parliament of Canada shall hereafter
determine."

Now, although a good many points were the subjects
of controversy between the two sides of the House,
between the late Government and hon. gentlemen who
were in opposition to that Government, this question
was not one of them. The policy propounded in the
resolution submitted by Sir George Cartier commended
itself not only to the judgment of the supporters of the
Government, but to both sides of the House, without a

202

Appendix

single exception. The only objection taken by hon.
gentlemen opposite to the resolution, which seemed to
be sufficiently distinct in its term, was, not any doubt,
as to the policy proposed, but it was held that the
terms were not strong enough in declaring that the
road should not be constructed by the Dominion
Government ; and Mr. Dorion, then a member of this
House, moved in amendment to add to the motion,
not to alter a word in it to change any part of its terms,
the words " and not otherwise." The object was to
make it stronger. We held that the resolution which
declared that the railway should not be constructed by
the Dominion Government, but that it should be con-
structed by a private company, aided by a grant of
land and money, was sufficiently strong, and rendered
it impossible for any Government, without the express
sanction of this House, to endeavour for a single moment
to depart from these terms. The hon. the First Minister
has characterized the engagement made by the Parlia-
ment of Canada, as stated by me to the House, in very
strong terms. He has, as will be seen on reference to
the debate in 1876, used the following language : —

" Let me say, so far as the work is concerned, that
I have always been an advocate of the construction of
a railway across the continent, but I have never be-
lieved that it was within our means to do it in anything
like the period of time within which the hon. gentlemen
bound Parliament and the country."

I am glad to be able to establish that point which
will be conceded by every one, that the hon. gentleman
had always been a strong advocate of the construction
of this railway across the continent. So as to the main
question regarding the necessity of the work, it will be
found that both sides of the House agree. The hon.
gentleman continued :

203

Sir Charles Tupper

"I believe the bargain was an act of madness — of
utter insanity, and an evidence of political incapacity
that has had no parallel in this or in any other country,
that I am aware of."

The language contained in that statement is very
strong, and it will become my duty in a few moments
to turn the attention of the House to the position which
the Government occupied on that question, which the
lion, gentleman felt himself warranted in characterizing
as an " act of madness and utter insanity." It will be
remembered that the Address passed the House on the
1st day of April, and on the llth the resolution which
I have just read was passed, preventing the Govern-
ment undertaking to construct the Pacific Railway
until they could obtain a private company, who, with
such a grant of lands and money as the country could
afford, without increasing the taxation of the people,
would undertake the work. That last clause might, on
the surface, seem somewhat unreasonable, but I will
call the attention of the House to this fact : That,
during the first seven years of Confederation, as the
hon. the Finance Minister was able to prove by public
documents in London, we had not only carried on
liberally the public service, and reduced the rate of
taxation $2,000,000 per annum, but we had also con-
tributed something like $16,000,000 to capital expendi-
ture, including the sinking fund, causing the reduction
of the public debt to that amount from the surplus
revenue. If hon. gentlemen will remember that, they
will see that it was quite within the power of the Govern-
ment to undertake the work without increasing the rate
of taxation at all. I may be asked, " What reason have
you to suppose that the prosperity of the country
would continue ? " In reply I will ask any hon. member
what he believes the result of the accomplishment of
the scheme of the late Government would have been

204

Appendix

in relation to the financial condition of Canada to-day.
Suppose the late Government had succeeded in doing
that which they endeavoured to accomplish — floating
that scheme in London for the construction of the rail-
way upon the terms stated — I would ask any hon.
gentleman what the result would have been of bringing
such an enormous amount of foreign capital into the
country, giving early, complete and rapid communica-
tion with the fertile prairies of the North-West, and
pouring an enormous tide of immigrants into that
country to become taxpayers with ourselves, and to
lighten the burdens which now rest upon our own
shoulders. I think there is not an hon. member in this
House who would not be ready to believe that, had it
been possible to accomplish what was proposed under
this scheme, and to secure the construction of this
railway on the terms stated, that the steadily rising
tide of Canada's prosperity would not have stopped, or,
at all events, that we should have maintained the
position which we then occupied. But I may be told
that it was on the 1st of April that the address was
passed, and that it was not until the llth that it was
qualified by this resolution. The House must remember
that we were not dealing with a foreign Power or with
parties who were prepared to take any rigid or technical
advantage of the Government ; but we were dealing
with those who were to be a portion of ourselves, who
would have a common interest with ourselves in having
the work prosecuted in the way most advantageous to
the country, and who would be deeply interested that
the financial credit of Canada should not be imperilled,
or that any result should follow which would be in-
jurious to the country to which they had irrevocably
linked their own fortunes. But I have still more con-
clusive evidence in relation to that matter. It will be
remembered that when the Address was passing the

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Sir Charles Tupper

House we had then present in Ottawa some of the
delegates from British Columbia, who had been author-
ized to represent the Province in these negotiations,
and prominent among them was Mr. Trutch, the late
Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia. I will
trouble the House for a few moments by reading an
extract from the speech he made at the banquet pro-
vided for his entertainment. He said : —

" We from British Columbia were prepared to accept
the amendment of the scheme, and we accordingly
proceeded to calculate the time it would probably take
to build the railroad, and we agreed upon an estimated
period of ten years. If it had been put at twelve or
fifteen years, British Columbia would have been just
as well satisfied, and if the estimated period had been
reduced to eight years, she would scarcely have been
better pleased. But some definite period for the com-
pletion of this work, the British Columbians insisted
upon as a necessary safeguard to our colony in entering
into the proposed union. To argue that any other
interpretation will be placed upon the railway engage-
ment by British Columbia than that which I have
given to you as my construction of it, to argue that
she expects it to be carried out in the exact interpreta-
tion of the words themselves, regardless of all conse-
quences, is a fallacy which cannot bear the test of
common sense.

" The case stands thus : British Columbia is about
to enter into a partnership with Canada, and one of the
terms of the articles of partnership is, that we are,
under the partnership, to construct a railroad under
certain conditions. Is British Columbia going to hold
her partner to that which will bring ruin and bank-
ruptcy upon the firm ? Surely you would think us
fools indeed, if we adopted such a course. I would
protest, and the whole of British Columbia would
protest, if the Government proposed to borrow
$100,000,000 or $150,000,000 to construct this road ;

206

Appendix

running the country into debt, and taxing the people
of British Columbia as well as the rest of the Dominion
to pay the burden of such a debt."

I will not occupy the time of the House by reading
further, but the speech is much longer and has a great
deal more in it to the same purpose. What I have read,
however, contains the point of the case. Well, Sir, the
Minister of Finance in introducing his Budget Speech
in 1874 also alluded to this question ; and as a great
deal has been said by the First Minister, who has used
the terms " madness, insanity and utter incapacity "
in connection with this act on the part of the late
Government, I may, perhaps, be excused for taking up
a little of the time of the House in meeting, and, I think,
disposing of at once and for ever, I trust with all reason-
able men, any charge based on such terms as these. In
referring to this resolution, which qualified this engage-
ment, the Minister of Finance said : —

" So very strong was the feeling that it was after-
wards determined that a certain resolution should be
placed on the Journals of the House, which, indeed,
was actually done, and by which it was declared that,
although we had committed ourselves to this claim, it
was only on condition that the road should be made in
a certain fashion, and that no excessive burden should
be placed on the resources of the country."

It would be difficult, Sir, to find language more
appropriately or more lucidly conveying exactly what
the action of the late Government and of Parliament
in this matter had been. He also says : —

" 1 have also been informed that the British Columbia
delegates were themselves assenting parties to this
resolution.

" That, however, I do not know of my own personal

207

Sir Charles Tupper

knowledge. This I do know, that I myself called the
attention of Sir George Cartier, the then Minister of
Militia, to this extraordinary provision, asking him if
he had communicated it to the Legislature of British
Columbia. Someone of the delegates was then sitting
near the chair of the Speaker, I am not sure which of
them, but I think it was Governor Trutch."

Sir George Cartier's reply was that : —

" There was no need to do so, because the delegates
were fully cognizant of the whole matter and were
assenting parties thereto. And, although I do not say
we can or will dissent from the consequences of our
legal obligations, I do say that at any rate the people
of British Columbia had very fair notice of what was
the intention and meaning of this House when these
obligations were undertaken."

I give this, Sir, as the testimony — I will not say of a
hostile witness — but of an hon. gentleman, who was
disposed himself to criticize, with a great deal of severity,
the course which the late Government had pursued in
entering into this engagement. Then we had recess at
six o'clock, and the hon. gentleman returned at 7.30
o'clock and resumed his speech. He had investigated
the matter in the meantime, and he then made some
further observations which I will read to the House.
He says : —

" Before I proceed further, I desire to correct an
error that I fell into with regard to the resolution of
April, 1871, passed after the treaty with British Colum-
bia was agreed to. I had been under the impression
that that resolution declared that the Pacific Railway
should be built without unduly increasing the taxation
of Canada. The actual text is stronger still. Sir George
Cartier moved and Mr. Tilley seconded a resolution
setting forth that the Railway referred to the Act
concerning the union between British Columbia with

208

Appendix

Canada, adopted on Saturday the 1st of April, should
be constructed by a company formed of private indi-
viduals, and not by the Dominion Government ; that
the company building it should be assisted by liberal
money subsidies and liberal grants of land, provided
always that no increase of the then rate of taxation
should hereafter be determined on in consequence."

The hon. gentleman, in revising his speech, has very
properly put the words "no increase" in italics, it
being the strongest feature of the resolution. The hon.
gentleman continued : —

" That, Sir, was the resolution placed upon our
Journals on the motion of Sir George E. Cartier, seconded
by Mr. Tilley. It was of value for the reason I have
alluded to, because it was represented to us at the time
it was passed that the delegates from British Columbia
were assenting parties thereto."

Now, Sir, I think I am not required to take up much
more time on that feature of the subject, but I may
say that following up the resolution meeting the en-
gagement which the late Government assumed, and
which Parliament assumed in relation to this matter,
it became the duty of the Government to bring before
the House what they considered a liberal grant of land
and a sufficient aid in public money in order to accom-
plish this work without increasing the rate of taxation ;
and, Sir, we submitted to the House resolutions which
will be found on the 145th page of the Journals of 1872,
declaring that this House would grant $30,000,000 and
50,000,000 acres of land for that work ; and we also
provided, in addition to this, that the Pembina Branch
should be embraced in the resolutions, and should have
a subsidy of 20,000 acres of land, and that the branch
connecting the line with Lake Superior should have a
subsidy of 25,000 acres of land per mile.

Now, Sir, we may leave the Lake Superior branch out
P 209

Sir Charles Tupper

of consideration altogether, for this reason ; it was then
supposed that it would be absolutely necessary to go
north of Lake Nepigon in order to obtain a line at all,
but by subsequent surveys it has been found, and on
both sides of the House it has been agreed, and both the
late and present Governments were quite agreed on the
question, that, as matters now stand, whenever the
main line is constructed, at whatever time that may be,
that a fair, passable line has been found skirting the
shores of Lake Superior within some ten miles of Lake
Superior, and, therefore, this disposes altogether of this
question of branches with the exception of the Pembina
Branch. We therefore committed the House and
country distinctly to the undertaking of providing
thirty million dollars and fifty million acres of land for
any company found possessed of sufficient means and
resources to undertake the construction of that work.
The First Minister has again and again referred in very
strong terms to the inadequacy of that appropriation ;
but, Sir, I think I may draw the attention of the House
to the fact that we have better evidence than that of
any opinion the First Minister is capable of giving on
this question. The First Minister is a gentleman of un-
doubted talenc- £'id ability and of high standing in the
country ; and although I do not suppose that he is at
all wantin'g in appreciation of his great powers, I am
quite certain that he will not himself undertake to put
his Government, on a purely commercial question,
against the opinions of many other gentlemen who are
to be found in the country ; and when I tell him that
the very ablest men — I am not speaking of gentlemen
connected with the late Government or having political
sympathies with it — who have shown by their success-
ful commercial enterprises, and by their great financial
ability, they have been able to acquire vast fortunes for
themselves, thus giving the best evidence to the country

210

Appendix

of their ability to judge on commercial questions — were
most eager to obtain acts of incorporation to enable
them to undertake the construction of this work on
the terms proposed, when I state that, I shall give the
House better evidence than any opinion of the First
Minister, that the scheme was not a bad scheme, that
there was no insanity in the proceeding, and that in
fact it was one which at that time and in the light of
information then obtained in this country upon this
subject, was regarded by the first commercial minds of
Canada as an eminently practical scheme. When I give
the names of the Honourable Mr. MacMaster and the
Honourable David Christie and also the present Honour-
able Minister of Customs, who shows himself possessed
of financial ability as far as investing money and the
transaction of business goes, I give, Honourable Gentle-
men, the best evidence that it was not a wild visionary
scheme, but that it was a practical scheme which com-
mended itself to the judgments of those best able to
form an opinion in relation to it. What were the
consequences to the late Government ? Was this propo-
sition to give fifty million acres of land and thirty
million dollars in money regarded as utterly inadequate ?
No ; the late Government was destroyed in a desperate
struggle between the first commercial men of all parties „
in Canada to obtain possession of the Charter on th^j^
terms. I do not require to occupy the time longer uf
show that we were not open to the charge of pro-
posing anything visionary or illusionary. It was a
solid substantial project which, if carried out, would
have accomplished untold benefits to the country.
Honourable Gentlemen opposite will all adrr'^jrfiat the
greatest boon which could be conferred ujfcL; Canada
would be the construction of the Canadian Pacific
Railway upon those terms. They were all agreed upon
that. We are all agreed upon the desirability of this

211

Sir Charles Tupper

work, which would be of such immense advantage to
Canada, being secured under the terms which Parlia-
ment was induced to grant for that purpose. The
scheme was defeated. I am afraid if I were to go into
that branch of the question I should be doing what I
said I would not do, namely, that I would not say any-
thing that could be understood as directed by party
feelings or political sentiment, and that I would not for
a single moment divert the attention of the House from
the question under consideration. But I believe that
time will come, if it has not already come, when it will
be regarded as the greatest misfortune the country ever
suffered that that scheme was defeated, and that
Honourable Gentlemen should have — I am afraid I
must say in the interest of party — adopted measures
to defeat it, which not only prevented its accomplish-
ment by those who had then undertaken to deal with
the work, but had thrown almost insuperable obstacles
in the way of their successors or any other Government.
However, it was done rightly or wrongly, justly or
unjustly. The late Government were defeated, and
Honourable Gentlemen opposite were charged with the
^ important duty of governing the country, and one of
VN the greatest and most important duties that devolved
upon them was the construction of the Canadian Pacific
^Railway. I am bound to say that it is deeply to be
'fomented, that party considerations ever entered into
this question. It is a question so gigantic in its pro-
portions, and of such enormous interest, and importance
to the country, that it demanded then, as it demands
now, that party considerations should be left entirely
in abe F^ nee ; and that men of all parties and of all
classes should unite, and endeavour to assist, whoever
may be the Government of the day, in any wise or
judicious measures that are calculated to accomplish
the object. I may not be able to look dispassionately

212

Appendix

upon questions in which the Government are concerned,
but, as far as I am able to do so, it is my desire, as it
ought to be of every hon. member of this House and
every patriotic man of whatever party, to assist any
Government in carrying forward any wise or judicious
measures, by which a work so important may become
accomplished. And now came the great test of finding
out whether hon. gentlemen in power carried out the
views they held when in Opposition. Hon. gentlemen
were called upon to deal with this question, and I am
bound to say, that they have not maintained in power
the principles they professed when they sat upon the
Opposition benches. I have shown that the Hon. Mr.
Dorion moved a resolution on the matter, and that the
House was unanimous upon the question as to how the
road was to be constructed. But not satisfied with the
clear, unqualified declaration that the road was not to
be built by the Dominion Government, he wanted to
add a " rider " to declare " and not otherwise " so as
to make it impossible for the road to be built except by
a private company, aided by a grant of land and money
from the Government. I think the hon. member for
Chateauguay seconded that resolution ; but, at all
events, I am able to say that the gentlemen sustaining
the present First Minister voted a solid and unanimous
vote with Mr. Dorion in reference to that question.
This gave to the country the most unqualified and
solemn pledge that public men can give to a people,
that if they obtained power they would carry out the
policy to which they had thus committed themselves.
The hon. gentleman now at the head of the Government
was called upon to form an Administration, and he had
to present himself before his constituents. The late
Government had, before that, appealed to the country,
and their policy had been sustained. The hon. gentle-
man when he went before his constituents, without any

213

Sir Charles Tupper

sanction from the members of the House, without
Parliament having been consulted, constructed a new
platform and declared his intention of building the road
as a Government road. The reason he adduces was
that the profits which go to the contractors under the
original scheme would go to the people. I will read the
words of the hon. gentleman from the organ of the
Government, and an organ which the hon. gentleman
will hardly be able to repudiate, because upon the
testimony of an hon. member of this House, it was an
organ to which he had himself contributed a very large
sum of money, in order to turn it over from an Opposi-
tion paper into an organ of the Government. I refer to
" The Times " of this city, which reported the hon.
gentleman as follows : —

" It will be the duty, as I think it will be the desire of
the Government, to develop any plan by which these
results are to be accomplished. . . . Any profit, Sir,
that would have come to the share of the company will
ultimately fall, under our scheme, to the share of the
country. ... It may be necessary for us to let the
work out in contracts, under our own superintendence,
but, at any rate, we shall take care that our attention
is given to the interests and money of the country."

True to the course the hon. gentleman stated there,
he introduced a Bill providing for the construction of
this work by the Government, giving the Government
power to deal with the whole of this work from end to
end as a Government work. The hon. gentleman says
that measure passed the House unanimously. He is
hardly candid, Sir, in making such a statement to this
House, if he means the House and the country to believe
that it met the concurrence of all the members of this
House. He must remember, or, if matters of too great
importance have rendered him forgetful of it, I re-
member that the Bill was rushed through this House

214

Appendix

at a late hour of the night, the Government refusing,
when the Opposition entreated the hon. gentleman to
give them more time, to delay it and give time for
further consideration. He knows that under the Saxby
gale, under the great tidal wave of political excitement
which swept over the country in 1874, the Opposition
were under great disadvantage ; he knows that we were
taunted, as, happily we cannot be taunted now, with
being a corporal's guard, and I admit that we were not
strong enough to protect the interests of the country
as an Opposition is bound to protect them, and as, I am
happy to say, we are able to protect them in this House
to-day. When the hon. gentleman says, however, it
was unanimous, he makes the statement in face of the
fact that I myself spoke in my place in the House —
spoke much longer, no doubt, than was pleasant to the
hon. gentleman and many of his supporters — against
the enactment of that measure, and declared that I re-
garded the undertaking to build this Canadian Pacific
Railway by the Government, apart from the policy
previously sanctioned by Parliament and the people, as
one which could not commend itself to the House, and
would be fraught, I was afraid, with disastrous results
to the country. There was, at all events, a very strong
feeling on the part of the Opposition that the hon.
gentleman was taking a step from which he was pre-
cluded by his past policy and pledged action in the
House, and which, in our judgment, at all events, the
public interests did not sanction. But the hon. gentle-
man also superadded to that the Georgian Bay branch.
Let me say a single word in reference to that measure.
It is known that I strenuously opposed in this House
the proposal for the construction of the Georgian Bay
Branch. Why did I oppose it ? It was because I re-
garded the abandonment of the policy of securing at an
early date the construction of a direct line of railway

215

Sir Charles Tupper

from Nipissing to the great prairies of the North-West,
as a great misfortune for the people of this country. I
regarded carrying a line of railway to a lake which
would be frozen six or seven months in the year as in-
volving a large expenditure without the country ever
receiving any commensurate advantage. I did not
oppose it on its own merits, but in contrast for that
route for which I felt the valley of the Ottawa had been
intended by nature. If anyone looks at the configura-
tion of this continent, if anyone looks at the position
of this Dominion to-day, if anyone will regard the four
millions of Canadians who are settled in this portion of
the country, and the great fertile prairies of the North-
West that would require the construction of, perhaps, a
thousand miles of railway to bring us in connection with
them, he must feel that we are throwing away perhaps
one of the greatest possible advantages to be derived
from the construction of this great national highway, if
we adopt any expedient by which we should relegate
to the remote future completion of a direct line of rail-
way to the valley of the Ottawa, bringing us the pro-
ducts of the North-West, inhabited, as it would be at
no distant date, by millions of intelligent, thrifty, in-
dustrious people. But the hon. gentleman felt, Sir, that
the construction of the Georgian Bay branch was a
matter of such vital necessity that we could not afford
to wait a moment, that, notwithstanding his pledges
and all his declarations that parliamentary government
required that every appropriation of public money
should be first sanctioned by Parliament, he must take
carte blanche to construct that work without the for-
mality of submitting the contract to Parliament, and
he obtained the sanction of his supporters to carry it
on in that way, and a large sum of money was placed
at his disposal to carry out that policy. And, Sir, his
policy embraced the subsidizing of lines of railway both

216

Appendix

in Ontario and Quebec. A good deal of controversy
has arisen as to what he meant by his declaration in his
manifesto that he purposes to subsidize lines of railway
in Ontario and Quebec to connect the Georgian Bay
branch with the system here. We all know now that
the subsidy to the Canada Central is the prominent
feature in connection with that policy, but I took the
opportunity of asking the hon. gentleman when making
his statement in 1874 — -he was good enough to allow
me to interrupt him by asking : " Are you to subsidize
one branch or two branches ? " Are you to connect
with the railways from Toronto as well as with the
railways in this section of the country ? and his answer
was " Two branches." So whatever policy he may
have adopted afterwards, his policy then was to give
subsidies to connect with the Toronto system, as well
as with the Ottawa system of railways. I only make
allusion to that in passing. But, as I have stated, the
matter of the Georgian Bay branch was considered so
pressing and of such vital interest that the hon. gentle-
man took power to exempt the contract made in regard
to it from the control of this House. The hon. gentle-
man has also undertaken the construction of a railway
from Thunder Bay to Red River. I hold that that was
a contravention of the Act, and I will tell the hon.
gentleman briefly why. The Act for the construction
of the Canadian Pacific Railway provided that it should
be divided into four sections. The Act read : —

" The whole line of the said railway, for the purposes
of its construction, shall be divided into four parts ;
the first section to begin at a point near to and south
of Lake Nipissing, and to extend toward the upper or
western end of Lake Superior, to a point where it shall
intersect the second section hereinafter mentioned."

Now, where is that point ? The hon. gentleman told

217

Sir Charles Tupper

us yesterday — he did not require to do so, because Mr.
Fleming, in his report, has pointed it out, as will be
seen by reference to the 55th page — that it is not the
intention that the commencement of a line at Thunder
Bay shall be any other than a branch. Mr. Fleming
says : —

" A practical route, without excessively heavy works,
is reported, establishing the fact that the trunk line
from the prairie to the eastern terminus in Ontario may,
in the future, be carried in a direct course, without
making a detour to Thunder Bay. The line now under
construction to Fort William will then constitute a
short branch from the main line to the navigation of
Lake Superior."

The hon. gentleman provided by his Act for the con-
struction of two branches — the Georgian Bay branch
and the Pembina branch. That was all ; the rest were
to be the four sections, and in the Act it is declared
that the first section shall run to the point where it
intersects the second section running on to Red
River. The hon. gentleman told us this would be a
branch from Thunder Bay of twenty-five or thirty
miles. Those who have looked at Mr. Fleming's map
will see that if anything is to be judged from the con-
figuration of the country from the line traced there,
that it would be near sixty or seventy miles, certainly
much nearer fifty miles than twenty -five or thirty. I
hold, therefore, that the hon. gentleman, in departing
from the policy to which he was committed by his
speech introducing this subject, in which he spoke of
Nepigon as the particular point of intersection, has
made a mistake, and that the construction of that
branch is without authority and that there is no appro-
priation of public money which can be legally used for
that purpose. The hon. gentleman admitted himself

218

Appendix

yesterday that the bay where the trunk line would
approach Lake Superior near Nepigon Bay would be
easier of access than Sault Ste. Marie, from the objective
point, than Thunder Bay. We all know that very
elaborate evidence was submitted in the report of the
Chief Engineer to establish the fact that there is no
point except Nepigon Bay which would have been
equally beneficial to the country, and avoided altogether
the construction of this branch, or any detour to run
in that direction. Therefore, in that respect, the hon.
gentleman has acted without law and constructed what
has been done without appropriation from Parliament.
But I now come to a much more important feature of
the policy of the hon. gentleman from any which I have
yet criticized — the terms made with the hon. gentleman
with Lord Carnarvon — the solemn treaty entered into
between the Province of British Columbia and binding
the Government also to the Imperial Government. I
have shown that every step taken by the House, up to
the change of Government, was taken under the guard
provided in the resolution — that the road should be
constructed by a private company, aided by grants of
land and money ; and all obligations we had incurred
in relation to British Columbia or the Imperial Govern-
ment, or anybody else were all limited by the open and
avowed policy declared by that resolution. I may say
that the effect of that resolution could not be better
illustrated than by the fact the hon. gentleman himself,
when he found it necessary in his own defence to quote
that resolution, quoted it as an unanswerable argument
to British Columbia. I will now refer to a Minute of
Council passed December 20th, 1875, which says : —

" It must be borne in mind that every step in the
negotiations must necessarily be predicated upon and
subject to the conditions of the resolution of the House

219

Sir Charles Tupper

of Commons passed in 1871, contemporaneously with
the adoption of the Terms of Union with British Columbia,
subsequently enacted in the Canadian Pacific Railway
Act of 1872, and subsequently enacted, after a large
addition had been made to the rate of taxation, in the
Canadian Pacific Railway Act of 1874 ; that the public
aid given to secure the accomplishment of this under-
taking should consist of such 4 liberal grants of land, and
such subsidies in money or other aid, not increasing the
then rate of taxation, as the Parliament of Canada
should thereafter determine.' '

One of the complaints made against the hon. the
First Minister is that he is inclined to be an autocrat.
One of the complaints is that while quoting the sweet
voices of the people he spoke of the necessity of a
Minister having the authority of Parliament and the
sanction of the people for every important act in which
they were engaged, but that no sooner did he get the
high position which he now fills than he seemed to throw
up all parliamentary restraint, and to regard his own
ipse dixit and the opinions of the Ministry with which
he associated as the only power to be recognized, or the
only one to which he required to pay any attention.
The hon. gentleman made an engagement which will
only occupy a moment in reading, and which will be
found extended at length at page 511, Hansard, 1875.
This engagement was made in November, 1876, during
the recess of Parliament, after the Session in which he
obtained power to deal with the whole question as a
Government work, taking it entirely out of the category
of a private enterprise. But still we had, as the hon.
gentleman admits, re-enacted the clause providing that
the work should not be proceeded with any faster than
could be done without increasing the existing rate of
taxation. I myself have a strong opinion as to the
extent to which that resolution was qualified by the

220

Appendix

clause the hon. gentleman caused to be inserted in the
Act of 1874, and where the terms of the resolution itself
was departed from by taking power to construct the
railway as a Government work which the resolution
required could only be done by a private company.
The hon. gentleman engaged to expend two millions per
annum in British Columbia and to commence the rail-
way the moment that the surveys were completed, and
if the hon. gentleman has determined to spend another
year in additional surveys, and surveys with reference
to points as far as the location of the route is concerned,
which I stated yesterday, appear to me to be uncalled
for — some little consolation for that state of things may,
perhaps, be found in the fact that he was bound under
those terms, and is bound under those terms, to expend
two millions per annum on the road immediately on the
completion of the surveys in British Columbia, and it
was just possible, in the existing state of things, that
the hon. gentleman does not feel himself quite prepared
to engage in the expenditure of two millions per annum
in British Columbia in the present condition of public
affairs. These terms, which are of a very extraordinary
character, are detailed substantially as follows :• —

" Lastly, that on or before the 31st of December,
1890, the railway shall be completed and open for
traffic from the Pacific seaboard to a point at the west
end of Lake Superior, at which it will fall into connection
with existing lines of railway through a portion of the
United States, and also with the navigation on Canadian
waters."

Now, Sir, the hon. gentleman, as I have stated, first
took power to construct this work directly by the
Government and then made a solemn binding treaty
with British Columbia and the Imperial Government
that by 1890 this work should be constructed and com-

221

Sir Charles Tupper

pleted from the Pacific Coast to the shores of Lake
Superior. What is the distance between these points ?
It is something like, according to the Chief Engineer's
statement, 2022 miles, over which the road was to be
built ; and the hon. gentleman made this engagement
without the slightest qualification or the slightest pro-
vision that it was not to increase the existing rate of
taxation. He made a binding, solemn treaty and the
good faith of the Government of this country was
pledged as far as a Minister — and the Minister has power
to pledge it to a great extent — could pledge it without
consultation with the House ; and without the know-
ledge of the House, the hon. gentleman entered into this
engagement. In inviting his attention to it I would
like to ask him whether the Act of the late Government
in engaging to subsidize with thirty millions of money
and fifty million acres of land a company to construct
the Canadian Pacific Railway was a madder scheme,
or a more insane scheme, or a scheme exhibiting greater
incapacity than was this scheme proposed by the hon.
gentleman holding the views which he did in reference
to the character of that work as stated by himself. Sir,
over his own signature previous to the appeal made to
the people he published a manifesto containing the
views and opinions of the Government in relation to
this matter and giving his opinion as to the cost of this
work. He stated, Sir, in that manifesto, in January,
1874, his views in reference to this work at some con-
siderable length : —

" In the meantime, with a view to obtain a speedy
means of communication across the continent, and to
facilitate the construction of the railway itself, it will
be our policy to utilize the enormous stretches of
magnificent water communication which lie between a
point not far from the Rocky Mountains and Fort
Garry, and between Lake Superior and French River

222

Appendix

on the Georgian Bay, thus avoiding for the present
the construction of about 1300 miles of railway, esti-
mated to cost from sixty to eighty millions of dollars
and rendering the resources of the country available
for the prosecution of those links."

Now, Sir, in this statement, and I shall draw the
attention of the House to it by and by, the hon.
gentleman estimated the saving of the six hundred
miles between Nipissing and Nepigon, and between
Red river and the remaining seven hundred miles west-
ward— because these were the water stretches and the
only water stretches he covered in his manifesto — he
estimated that 1300 miles of railway, seven hundred
miles of it through the prairie region, at from sixty
million dollars to eighty million dollars. That 1300
miles of this road, and that not the most unfavourable
portion of it, more than half being prairie country,
was going to cost between sixty and eighty millions of
dollars ; and in the face of that declaration, which I
presume he would not make without having gone into
some calculations with reference to it, the lowest
calculation involving an enormous expenditure of
money, this engagement was made by the hon. gentle-
man without any reserve, and without the slightest
qualification as to whether the resources of the country
would admit of it. Now as we stood up to that period,
we had a safety-valve and a clause exempting the
country from being plunged headlong into a ruinous
expenditure, but this was all swept away by the hon.
gentleman who presented himself to this House with the
declaration that this was a binding treaty which he had
made, not only with a portion of ourselves, with our
fellow citizens in British Columbia, but also with the
Imperial Government, which was solemnly called on to
take part in the negotiations affecting that arrange-
ment. Now, Sir, I would draw the attention of the

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Sir Charles Tupper

House for one moment to this question as one of great
importance, because it has involved the most serious
charge against the hon. gentleman and his Govern-
ment that was ever made, or that ever could be made
against any Government ; it has involved the charge
of bad faith. I hold, Sir, that serious as were the
financial arrangements and great as were the pecuniary
difficulties with which he surrounded his question,
that by this arrangement, even that sank into in-
significance compared with the question of having the
good faith of the Government of Canada challenged,
not only by the Province, and the important Province
of British Columbia, a portion of ourselves, but also,
Sir, broadcast throughout the world, through Great
Britain and wherever the name of Canada was known.
Up to that hour, Sir, no spot, no stain, could rest upon
the reputation of the Government of Canada with
relation to any engagement that it had ever made ;
but, I say that the charge of bad faith was brought
against, and has been sustained against, the hon.
gentleman, by arguments and by evidence so con-
clusive as to involve great trouble and great difficulty,
I am afraid, on his part, in order to extricate himself
from it ; and as, Sir, there is no advantage to be gained
in concealing from ourselves the true nature of the case,
and as it is the painful duty of the surgeon, occasion-
ally, as the first step towards the cure, to probe a wound
to the very bottom, I feel myself called upon, for a few
moments, to touch upon and examine that most im-
portant feature of this question. I may be told that I
have had my answers, and that, too, from a very high
quarter, — that His Excellency the Governor -General,
who has the best and most intimate means of judging
of Ministers, has, in distinct and unqualified terms,
exonerated at all events the Prime Minister from any
charge of bad faith in relation to this matter. I cannot

224

Appendix

allow that, Sir, to prevent me dealing with the subject,
but I shall touch on that point as delicately as possible,
as I feel that the distinguished gentleman who rightly
enjoys the confidence of the people of this country as
few Governors-General have done before, that men of
all parties, and men of all classes recognize in him a
gentleman who has devoted himself, heart and soul, to
the best interests of Canada ; and because no person
will question his entire honesty in making the state-
ment, which he did in reference to this matter. I will
not discuss the question, Sir, of its constitutionality ;
but I say that it is one of the most serious charges
against this Government, that they should render it
necessary for the representative of the Crown to come
down from the exalted position he holds, and take part
in the discussion of political questions that agitate the
country. Now, Sir, I say that the evidences of the
breach of faith that have been raised on the part of the
people of British Columbia, have not, in my judgment,
been raised without a good deal of foundation. It will
be remembered that the hon. gentleman who is now
Minister of Justice, then occupied an independent
position in this House and a very independent position
at the moment, put a question on the notice paper. It
was a very serious question, and it appears in the Votes
and Proceedings of the 4th March, 1875 : —

" Mr. Blake — on Monday next — Enquiry of Ministry.
Whether the Government intend to propose to Parlia-
ment any measure on the subject of the readjustment
of the Terms of Union with British Columbia ? "

Now, Sir, it is known that the hon. gentleman had,
in addition to engaging to construct this railway, the
2000 miles of railway which the Government had power
to build as a Government work, and which, by the
period of 1890, he was to have completed, also engaged

Q 225

Sir Charles Tupper

to add to that, outside of this work altogether, the
construction of the road from Nanaimo to Esquimalt,
sixty-eight miles of additional road. The Minister of
Justice put this significant question on the notice
paper, and what was his answer ? The answer was given
in the true spirit of the autocrat. The hon. gentleman
said, but at the time, I suppose, he felt stronger than he
did afterwards : —

" With respect to the question raised by my hon.
friend from South Bruce, I may say I have nothing to
ask from Parliament. We have no authority to obtain,
but have merely to communicate this decision and rely
upon the House supporting us in accepting the terms
that have been made through the intervention or
intermediation of Lord Carnarvon, and that support,
I do not doubt, will be cheerfully accorded."

So the hon. gentleman had made an unqualified
engagement with British Columbia and with the Im-
perial Parliament, to spend $2,000,000 per annum in
British Columbia — build sixty-eight miles of railway from
Nanaimo to Esquimalt, and finish the line from the
Pacific to Lake Superior, 2000 miles, by 1890. Yet his
answer was that, from Parliament he had nothing to
ask. But he altered his mind. Some significant
divisions took place in the House. The present Minister
of Justice, then sitting on the independent benches,
voted against the hon. gentleman on the Bill for the
Nanaimo and Esquimalt Railway ; and on a most
important question, in which the legality of the pro-
ceedings of the Government in reference to the Canadian
Pacific Railway was involved, the hon. gentleman put
on his hat and walked out of the House, accompanied
by another gentleman, whose assistance the Govern-
ment felt it necessary since to obtain on the Treasury
benches, as Minister of the Interior. The hon. gentle-

226

Appendix

man had, before the session was far advanced, some
pretty strong hints that the position he had assumed,
in which he undertook to deal with the most important
financial interests of this country, and involving the
most onerous obligations — obligations to which any-
thing undertaken by the late Government seemed
insignificant — was such that he was not as strong in
the support of the House as he had led himself to
believe. What occurred ? The Bill was passed by this
House by a large majority. This Bill provided for
building the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway in addi-
tion to the rest of the Canadian Pacific Railway. I may
be told that we contemplated building a road on
Vancouver Island. We did. We had fixed upon a
terminus at Esquimalt, but every person knows that
that did not involve the additional cost of a dollar, as
far as the financial resources of the country were con-
cerned. The stipulation required that the parties
obtaining the charter of the Pacific Railway should
build this road, the subsidy to be the same as far as
money was concerned. But the hon. gentleman changed
his base. He, who to-day had nothing to ask from
Parliament, to-morrow found it convenient to introduce
a Bill for the purpose of constructing the Esquimalt and
Nanaimo Railway. He passed this Bill through the
House despite the opposition of the present Minister of
Justice and other leading members of the Opposition.
The Bill was lost, however, and significantly lost in the
Upper House by the votes of two of the warmest and
strongest friends the hon. gentleman had in that
branch of the Legislature. I am not going to say that
it was lost at the instance of the First Minister, but I
may say that his colleagues in the Upper House did not
exhibit great enthusiasm in trying to obtain a majority.
But the Bill, having passed by a considerable majority,
was abandoned. This was a case in which the hon.

227

Sir Charles Tupper

gentleman could say : " The good faith of Canada is
pledged ; we are bound to the British Columbian and
Imperial Governments to carry this out ; I ask you to
re-affirm the policy." The lion, gentleman could have
used those powers of moral suasion which are always in
the power of a leader of the Government. But no ! He
abandoned his policy, and an extraordinary occurrence
presented itself. The hon. gentleman who was most
hostile to the construction of this branch was taken
into the Cabinet, as the result of the bargain was that
the road should be sacrificed. That statement may
seem a strong one, but I will sustain it by a speech
delivered by the hon. Minister of Justice himself at
Walkerton, in which he said that he would not enter the
Cabinet until the Government had made up their minds
to abandon their policy in this respect. The hon.
gentleman said, as reported in the "Globe " : —

" He would now touch upon a question with respect
to which he had not been in entire accordance with
the gentleman who was conducting the affairs of the
country. He referred to the settlement attempted to
be made through the Earl of Carnarvon with British
Columbia. He had been of opinion that that settlement
was more onerous to the country than it was advan-
tageous to agree to, and he was happy to be able to say
that, previous to his accepting office, discussions had
been entered upon which had resulted in an agreement
upon a policy satisfactory to himself. He would not
tell them they might hope for as satisfactory a settle-
ment of the dreadful burden imposed upon them by
their predecessors as they would like, but he had every
reason to hope that matters would be placed in a more
satisfactory position than at one time they could
expect they would be."

And what was that policy proposed by the present
Minister of Justice ? It was to dip their hands into the

228

Appendix

public treasury of Canada and hand $750,000 over to
the people of British Columbia for local works. The
hon. gentleman seemed to think that all that was
necessary in case of any embarrassment was that such
a sum of money should be paid as might meet the
emergency. But the hon. the First Minister, who had
thus abandoned his policy, said to the people of British
Columbia that he was defeated in the Senate, and that
the Government were reluctantly compelled to abandon
the construction of the Nanaimo and Esquimalt Rail-
way. My right hon. friend from Kingston and myself
supported the Government in that proposition, and we
voted for the second reading of the Bill. But when the
hon. gentleman refused to agree that the contracts
should be submitted to Parliament, we voted against
the third reading, and our friends in the Upper House
voted entirely in harmony with us. The great sub-
stantial element of the policy of the Government, as
arranged with Lord Carnarvon, regarding the con-
struction of the Pacific Railway, was still left intact.
Although the Government were not going to build the
Nanaimo and Esquimalt Railway, they were to carry
out the rest of the terms as to the Pacific Railway. The
terms were onerous. I am not surprised that the hon.
gentleman began to be alarmed. The hon. gentleman
who had said that all the resources of the British
Empire could not build the Pacific Railway in ten years
had agreed to build 2022 miles, from the head of Lake
Superior to the Pacific Ocean in thirteen years from
this time, that is, by 1890.

Mr. Cauchon. — That is three years more.

Mr. Holton. — The question is whether it would be
easier to do the work by 1890 or by 1881.

Mr. Tupper. — I say this : that the obligation on the
part of Canada to give certain aid to a Company which
would find the capital to build the railway, and although

229

Sir Charles Tupper

the engagement was to finish it in ten years, yet, as has
been shown by Mr. Trutch, if it could not be done in the
ten years, the time would have been extended, pro-
vided honest, straightforward, and conscientious efforts
were made to fulfil the obligation the Government in-
curred, that obligation was vastly superior, as none
knew better than the hon. member for Chateauguay,
than that the Government should proceed with the
road as a Government work, taking every dollar re-
quired from the public exchequer, and by a loan and
debt placed on the shoulders of the country build it by
1890. There is no comparison between the extent of
obligation incurred in the two cases.

Mr. Holton. — The two points are quite distinct. The
relative advantages of the two modes of constructing
the road, and the possibility of building the road within
a given time. The latter was the point to which the
hon. member was addressing himself when I ventured
to throw across the floor the slight interruption. I say
that, whereas, he agreed to finish the road by 1881, my
hon. friend the First Minister proposed to build, not the
whole, but a considerable portion of the line by 1890,
and the hon. member for Cumberland was denouncing
him for undertaking an impossible task.

Mr. Tupper. — The hon. member for Chateauguay
will see this — and he will see it very readily — that -the
essence of the objection was, there being a time bargain
in the first instance. We were told by the delegates
that they would not hold us to the ten or twelve years,
but that we might have whatever time would reason-
ably be required in the construction of the work. But
the great assault made was that it was a time bargain,
although it was made with a portion of ourselves. But
here is a bargain to which the Imperial Government
became parties, made after hon. gentlemen have had
further time for consideration, made to construct that

230

Appendix

portion of the line which will involve the longest time,
viz. through the Cascade Range and Rocky Mountains,
made without any qualification as to whether the
resources of the country will permit it.

Mr. Holton. — Were the Imperial Government parties
to the original engagements ? Was it not in the
address which formed the basis of union ?

Mr. Tupper. — The Imperial Government were parties,
in so far as they were willing — for that was all they had
to do — that British Columbia and Canada should unite
on the terms we had mutually agreed upon. Here is a
case in which the Secretary of State for the Colonies
had come to accept the position of arbitrator in the
carrying out of the agreement made between Canada
and British Columbia, to which the Imperial Govern-
ment were parties.

Mr. Holton. — Was not the ground of that interference
of the Imperial Government that they were parties to
the original agreement made by hon. gentlemen oppo-
site ?

Mr. Tupper. — The colony of British Columbia felt
they were entitled to go to the Imperial Government
to complain in regard to any violation by Canada of
the terms mutually agreed upon. The main feature of
the policy was still left, all except the railway on
Vancouver Island. Did the Government maintain
good faith as to that ? The First Minister came to
Parliament and proposed a vote — a moderate vote — to
carry on works connected with the railway. What
happened ? If hon. gentlemen would turn to Hansard
for 1876, they will find the record of a very extra-
ordinary procedure. They will find that the hon. First
Minister, having become wise in his generation, found
that he had committed himself to this unqualified
engagement — a point not noticed by many members
of the Opposition on the inception of the matter — that

231

Sir Charles Tupper

his solemn pledge was unrelieved by any action of the
Senate, the pledge to construct the road from the shores
of the Pacific to the shores of Lake Superior, over two
thousand miles, by 1890. What happened when that
item came up for the construction of the railway ?
What did the hon. member for West Middlesex (Mr.
Ross) do ? That hon. member is not a very recalcitrant
supporter of the hon. the First Minister. I will not say
he is not an independent member, but among the hon.
gentleman's followers he has none more devoted than
the hon. member for West Middlesex ; there is no hon.
member who will make a greater effort to act in accord
with the First Minister, and, I believe, the hon. gentle-
man on more than one occasion showed the hon. the
First Minister that he was prepared to make a sacrifice
in order to meet his views. What did the hon. member
for West Middlesex do ? He moved a vote of want of
confidence in the Government. We had been voting
them the Supplies. We, like a loyal Opposition, had
been endeavouring, as far as possible, to promote the
interests of the country ; but submitting to the fact
that we were a minority, and must accept the general
policy of the Government, and on many occasions vote
them larger sums than we thought necessary in the
interests of the country, or, demanded by the necessity
of the case. We recognized the obligation to assist the
Government in carrying the Supply Bill. The hon.
member for Middlesex, however, moved a vote of want
of confidence, refusing to vote one dollar for the con-
struction of the railway until the House had adopted
the motion, which was in these terms : —

" But while granting this sum, this House desires to
record its view that the arrangements for the con-
struction of the Canadian Pacific Railway shall be such
as the resources of the country will permit, without
increasing the existing rates of taxation."

232

Appendix

The moment that resolution was moved, the hon. the
First Minister was bound to rise in his place and state
that he would sacrifice his position as First Minister
before he would accept it, because it involved an act of
bad faith, he had made a binding obligation with the
Imperial Government and British Columbia, that a
certain work should be constructed in a certain time.
It was impossible to proceed with the work at all if the
resolution were passed. I can show the House that the
Government of the day are, in the face of that resolu-
tion, violating the Constitution by spending one dollar
in connection with the railway. What was the state of
things when the resolution was passed ? It was this :
Three millions of additional taxes had been levied on
the Canadian people as the hon. the Minister of Justice
had stated in one of his speeches ; that British Columbia
had nothing to complain of, for Parliament had pro-
vided three millions of additional taxes for the purpose
of constructing the road. The money was all gone, and
to say that under these circumstances the Government
should not be permitted to spend that vote until they
had accepted that resolution, was to say that they
should not spend another dollar in connection with the
railway. The hon. the First Minister was bound to
have thrown himself on the House, not on one side but
on both sides, and to have said : " The good faith not
of the Government alone, but of Canada, was pledged
by the head of the Government to carry out the railway,
and I call on the House to vote down the motion." It
is said that the resolution was drafted by a Minister
and offered by a Minister to another Government in
this House a month before and he refused to move it,
and that resolution, moved by the hon. member for West
Middlesex (Mr. Ross), was voted for by the Government
and all their supporters ; and when they did that, they
placed themselves in the position from which I believe,

233

Sir Charles Tupper

with all their ability and special pleading, they will find
it difficult to extricate themselves when arraigned by
British Columbia or by the Colonial Minister, or any
person in this country, on the serious charge of having
been guilty of bad faith in relation to this matter.
(It being six o'clock the Speaker left the Chair.)

AFTER RECESS

Mr. Tupper resumed his speech. He said : When the
House rose for recess I was dealing with the position in
which the Government were placed by the resolution
passed at the close of the last Session, and I had taken
the ground that any expenditure made since the passage
of that resolution by the Government was not only un-
constitutional but illegal — that, in fact, they were bound
by the resolution to stop at once any expenditure upon
the Canadian Pacific Railway. The resolution which
I read provided that the vote for the construction of
the road should only be given to them under the
obligation that no portion of it could be expended
which would involve increasing the existing rate of
taxation. Now, what was the position in which the
hon. gentlemen found themselves placed the moment
that resolution was placed upon the journals of this
House ? Three millions of new additional taxation
had been imposed upon the people of Canada, and
which was admitted by one of the hon. Ministers to be
mainly for the purpose of constructing a railway.
Parliament met, and the Government were obliged to
admit, what the hon. the Minister of Finance has
admitted, during the present Session, that he went to
England to negotiate the late loan last autumn because
it was known that a large deficit existed. Now the
Government have admitted this Session that the deficit
was about two million dollars, that the three million

234

Appendix

dollars of additional taxation which was imposed was
all expended, and that that being done the ordinary
expenditure of the country exceeded the whole revenue
by one million nine hundred thousand dollars ; and,
as an examination of the figures shows, the hon. the
Minister of Finance considerably understated the
amount of the deficit which existed. The Government
have asked the House to impose $500,000 of additional
taxation this year, in order to meet the expenditure of
the year over the amount which the three million
dollars of previous taxes had enabled them to meet.
Under these circumstances, I want to know, if this
resolution is not waste paper, what it means. I want
to know how the Government can, without violating
the principle of Parliamentary Government, expend a
single dollar of public money for the construction of
the Canadian Pacific Railroad with the admission of
the hon. the Finance Minister that the taxation of the
country was increased, must be increased, and that
additional taxes must be imposed in order to meet this
expenditure — that he was unable to meet the existing
cost upon the revenue without new taxation. I say
they were completely prohibited and precluded from
the expenditure of a single dollar without the violation
of the constitution. I have another very great charge
to make against the administration in relation to this
work. Every person who has given the subject any
attention knows that, regarded from what point of
view you may, the moment you have declared the
expediency of constructing the Pacific Railway, the
moment you have gone the length that the hon. the
First Minister has gone in admitting its absolute
necessity, that moment you are bound to adopt every
possible means in your power in order to promote the
construction of that road. What means have the
Government adopted ? I shall show the House that

235

Sir Charles Tupper

from the moment they were placed in the responsible
position they occupy they had steadily, persistently,
and enormously exaggerated the cost of that work.
And what would be the effect of that ? The effect of
exaggerating the cost would be to prevent any capitalists
at home or abroad from investing a dollar, and to
compel the Government of the country to find all the
money required to be invested in the work. And if I
can show the House, as I am confident that I can, that
they have steadily exaggerated and done all that they
possibly could, in the high positions which they occupy,
to deter any person from assisting in the construction
of that work, and damaged the financial position of the
country by declaring that it had assumed an obligation
to construct a work enormous in its cost and unpro-
ductive in its results, I think I will show that the
Government had pursued a course the most inimical to
the interests of the country that can be conceived. The
hon. the First Minister gave a proper answer to a ques-
tion which I put across the floor of the House last night.
I asked the estimated cost of the Pacific Railway, and
the hon. gentleman gave us some very interesting, and,
I may frankly say, some encouraging statements as to
the cost of the work. In order to draw out a statement
which would be still more encouraging, I asked what
the estimate was. His answer was judicious and
proper. It was to the effect that in the position that
he occupied, and in relation to the fact that they were
about to ask for tenders at no distant day, it would
perhaps be unwise for him to commit himself to a
statement as to the expenditure it would involve. I
regret that that wise and judicious policy was not
always pursued by the hon. gentleman. I need not go
back to the period of the General Election, when the
country was made to ring with the most exaggerated
statements of the cost of this work, and the intolerable,

236

Appendix

or to use the expressive language of the hon. the
Minister of Justice since he became a member of the
Government, the " dreadful burden " that was upon
the country. The statements to the country have been
precisely of that character, and, coming from persons
in the position occupied by hon. gentlemen opposite,
rendered it impossible to draw a dollar of money into
the service of the country in connection with this
work. Now the hon. the Minister of Public Works,
in the most authentic manner, over his own signa-
ture, in a well and carefully considered manifesto
at the General Election, estimated the cost of 1300
miles, of certainly not the most difficult portion, at
from $60,000,000 to $80,000,000 — no portion of this
was in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. He
stated, as I have said, that he proposed to avoid the
construction of 1300 miles of this road, some 600 miles
of it from Lake Nepigon and the remaining 700 along
the water stretches of the Saskatchewan, saving to the
country and avoiding for the present the construction
of about 1300 miles of railway, which was estimated to
cost from $60,000,000 to $80,000,000. Now, Sir, if
1300 miles of this road — and certainly not the most
difficult portion of it, for we all recognized as being the
great difficulty the line permeating the Cascade range
and the Rocky Mountains — would cost from sixty to
eighty millions of dollars, I would ask what estimate
commercial men, intelligent men and capitalists, would
form of the amount of money that would be required
to construct this 2000 miles from the Pacific to Lake
Superior. Well, Sir, we have that followed up by the
statement, quite as authentic and on a financial question
quite as weighty, published as we knew, broadcast, and
sent to every part of the country, and not only here,
but in Great Britain, by the Hon. Minister of Finance.
Some comment, I believe, Sir, has been made with

237

Sir Charles Tupper

reference to the expenditure involved in the publication
of the Budget Speeches of the Minister of Finance ;
but, Sir, I do not intend to raise any question as to the
propriety of a document so important as that being
widely spread over the country, though I will ask, for
what reason should you spend a great deal of money
when you have a great work like the Canadian Pacific
Railway in hand, — in sending abroad and in Great
Britain a statement such as that which I am now going
to read on this subject from the Budget Speech in 1874
of the Minister of Finance. He said, following up the
authentic statement of the First Minister : —

44 In order rightly to understand the real nature and
extent of the burden we would be required to take upon
ourselves, it must be remembered that the lowest
estimate for building this road to the Pacific is some-
thing over one hundred millions of dollars, and this too
on a supposition that a very much longer time would be
given for the construction.

44 1 entertain no doubt that if it were incumbent
upon us to push the line through within the time
specified (if this were possible), the expense would be
enormously increased, and that a moderate estimate
would reach one hundred and fifty or one hundred and
sixty millions of dollars. Every hon. gentleman who
has had experience in these matters knows that the
cost of construction of a work of this kind is largely
enhanced if it be required to carry it to completion in
a certain limited time. They well know, too, that there
is a great difficulty in carrying such a work through an
unprotected country, much of which, looking particu-
larly at two sections of it, is a desert, at least for arable
purposes.

4 Were we to undertake such a burden as this, I
would simply say that our national debt in seven years
would be, relatively to our population, just one-third
greater than that with which the United States emerged

238

Appendix

from their great Civil War, and, if measured by the rate
of interest required, it would be one-third greater than
the huge national debt of England."

Now, Sir, the First Minister stated in his manifesto
to the country that he hoped, in connection with this
work, to be able to attract an immense amount of
immigration to the country, and every person who
knows anything of this question, the building of the
Canadian Pacific Railway, knows that one of the most
important features in connection with it is the oppor-
tunity its construction would present of bringing a
great mass of immigrants into this country ; and how
admirably are these words of the Finance Minister
calculated to bring people into Canada when people
throughout the world are told, from so high and so
authentic a source as the Minister of Finance of the
Government of Canada, that the debt of this country
is to become greater than that of the United States
when emerging from the Civil War, and one -third
greater than that of England. In other words he goes
on to say : —

il That if we undertake to fulfil this project according
to the letter of the law, the burden we would require to
ask you to lay upon yourselves for this purpose alone
would be equal to a new debt of $750,000,000 sterling
imposed on the people of England."

He is determined, Sir, that they shall understand the
enormous taxes they will have to pay if they venture
to come into Canada. He continues : —

" Having regard to population and the rates of
interest we would respectively have to pay, for this is
an important consideration, were it the pleasure of the
House to decide that the Canadian Pacific Railway
must be completed in that time, it must also be pre-
pared to take into account the sums required to be

239

Sir Charles Tupper

borrowed for other public works, and to redeem certain
portions of the public debt ; and, at a moderate estimate,
over $200,000,000 would be needed for all purposes.
In other words, we would be compelled to go to the
London market, practically open to us — as borrowers—
for $30,000,000 every year for seven successive years.
There may be honourable gentlemen in this House who
think we would be able to do this ; but if so, I envy
them their faith in the future of the Dominion. Now,
Sir, I say, that such a project, involving such a charge,
is ludicrously absurd."

Then, Sir, he returned to the subject, and he said : —

" Now, Mr. Chairman, I spoke before the Recess at
some length upon the extraordinary deficiency arising
from the working of the Intercolonial Railway and the
other railroads of the Dominion chiefly in the Maritime
Provinces. The deficiencies arising from these sources
are reported as likely to amount to the extraordinary
sum of about a million and a quarter dollars. I desire
to call the especial attention of the House to one point
which must be clear to every hon. gentleman. These
railways ran for the most part through a country which
has been settled for the last fifty or sixty years. I
cannot refer, of course, to the fact that these railroads
entailed such an enormous expenditure, without its
becoming apparent to the House that the cost of the
maintenance of a railway nearly three thousand miles
in length, and passing through a country which is
almost entirely uninhabited, must be of necessity very
much greater. For a very long time, even after the
actual construction of this railway, an enormous charge
must be levied upon this country in order to keep it in
full working order and repair, and this fact must be
steadily kept sight of in considering the real character of
the project."

So much, Sir, for the manner in which the Minister
of Finance endorsed the statements of the First Minister ;

240

Appendix

of course, they are qualified to a certain extent by
his speaking of the effect of the construction of that
road within a certain time, but the hon. gentleman
applied no such limitation to this estimate. He says
the lowest estimate is one hundred millions, and yet,
Sir, strange to say, these gentlemen — I will not say
with madness or with recklessness, to use the strictly
parliamentary expressions of the First Minister, because
I wish to confine myself to extremely moderate terms
in characterizing the acts of the hon. gentleman opposite;
I will not use any of these terms, although having such
an authority for them in connection with this subject,
they naturally rise to one's lips ; but I do say that
these statements were not, in my judgment, calculated
to promote the construction of the Canadian Pacific
Railway, either by a company or by the Government.
In the first place, they would be calculated, in the
mind of every commercial man and capitalist abroad,
to lead to the conclusion that the construction of the
Canadian Pacific Railway was one of the maddest and
most questionable measures that any Government or
party ever engaged in ; and in the second place, they
would lead to the conclusion that the Government that
were saddling a country with such a liability, and had
undertaken to carry out such an obligation, would be
in a position that would render their credit at no
distant day a very doubtful matter. I have given you
the statement over the signature of the First Minister
and his manifesto to the country ; and the endorse-
ment of that by, and the statements of, the Minister of
Finance. Then, Sir, we come to the introduction of the
Act, and hon. gentlemen will remember — because the
subject was too important rapidly to fade from recol-
lection— that when the First Minister went, as he was
bound to do, into a very exhaustive explanation of what
the cost of this work would be, he drew his illustrations

R 241

Sir Charles Tupper

from a variety of sources, as to what railways cost in
other places, and showed that railways running through
a prairie country cost not less than $48,000 a mile.
He told us what the Intercolonial was costing, and he
led the House and country to believe that, in his estimate
of 1300 miles, costing from $60,000,000 to $80,000,000
he was not very far astray. He stated that the country
must find all the money. That the project was so hope-
less as a commercial undertaking that it was simple
madness to look for any assistance from capitalists,
and that the people of the country must make up their
minds to bear the burden themselves, without any aid
from capitalists. He favoured the House with an
estimate of the working expenses. He showed that the
life of an iron rail was only eight years, a steel rail,
however, lasting some years longer. He undertook to
show that when the road was in working order it was
hopeless to expect anything like fair returns until
millions of people were thrown into the North-West ;
and he estimated that there would be an annual de-
ficit on the working expense of six million dollars.
This was the view hon. gentlemen were putting
forward to the country at the very time they were
taking power to construct the whole of the road as
a Government road, and making a solemn engage-
ment to construct, in thirteen years from the present
date, some two thousand miles, and that embracing
some of the most difficult portions of the road. I am
charging the Government with doing that which, if
they could be justly charged with, certainly shows an
amount of incapacity in dealing with this matter which
was extraordinary. I say that the Government were
bound to present it in the most favourable light to the
country, especially if they had the most remote idea
that the time would come when they would invite
capitalists to tender for its construction. Last night,

242

Appendix

the hon. the First Minister gave us the information that
228 miles of the railway from Thunder Bay to English
river, and from Selkirk to Keewatin, would be com-
pleted and fairly equipped with rolling stock at some-
thing like $24,500 per mile, and that 65 miles from
Pembina to Fort Garry had been graded at a cost of
$3,500 per mile, and that this latter amount was to
be considered as something like a fair estimate of the
prairie sections.

Mr. Mackenzie. — No, no.

Mr. Tupper. — I suppose then that the hon. gentle-
man intended to confine his estimate to completing the
line from Fort Garry to Selkirk ?

Mr. Mackenzie. — Yes.

Mr. Tupper. — I understood the hon. gentleman to
apply that estimate to the whole of the prairie section.
But the country must be exceptionally favourable in
that part of the route.

Mr. Mackenzie. — Of course it is.

Mr. Tupper. — But I am certain the House heard
with pleasure the hon. gentleman state the amount of
money which practical experience had shown a road
could be constructed for, and I would like to ask him,
in the light of the experience he has had, whether he is
not prepared to revise his statement as to the " in-
sanity " of building the road on a subsidy of $30,000,000
and fifty million acres of the finest land on which the
sun shines on any part of the world. (Hon. gentlemen :
Oh, oh.) Yes, I say you can select by the Pacific
Railway Act fifty million acres of the finest land in the
world upon which the sun shines. Nothing on the face
of the civilized world exceeds it in fertility, and as a
grain and grazing country ; and I do not think that the
hon. the First Minister will be prepared to controvert
that statement. At Whit by, in the Riding of South
Ontario, the hon. gentleman said we might as well offer

243

Sir Charles Tupper

ten dollars to build the road as thirty million dollars
and fifty million acres of land. This was the language
by an honourable gentleman whose every word was
weighed, as he now seemed to appreciate. After
spending three years in denouncing this undertaking,
and exaggerating in every possible and conceivable
manner the cost of this work, diminished as had been
" the dreadful burden " by the interposition of the
Minister of Justice, the finale was, that the hon. gentle-
man was, at the moment he was making the above
remarks at Whitby, publishing a notice to capitalists
and contractors to be prepared on the 1st January,
1877, to tender for the construction of this road. After
undertaking the work as a Government work, and
spending large amounts of money upon it as such, in
constructing some of the least productive portions of
the road, after having exhausted all the power the
Government possessed, in pointing out the utter im-
possibility of any person touching this matter, without
being involved in the most utter financial ruin, he
caps the climax by adopting the policy of the late
Government, publishing notices for tenders to con-
tractors upon the basis of $10,000 and twenty
thousand acres of land per mile, or at the rate of
$27,000,000 and fifty million acres of land, and asks
the amount they will take, in addition to that to build
and own and operate the road. The hon. gentleman
mentioned last night to the House, he took us into his
confidence so far as to say, that there had not been
much result obtained from that advertisement, that the
capitalists of the world did not seem in a hurry to
invest their money or their means in the construction
of a Pacific Railway for Canada. Is it any wonder,
after three years spent by this Government in exaggera-
ting, as the hon. gentleman proved last night, in enor-
mously exaggerating the cost that would be involved by

244

Appendix

the construction of this work, that when he comes
back at last to the policy of his predecessors, the hon.
the First Minister finds that what capitalists were
eagerly prepared to engage in at a former period, they
now shrink from touching. The statements of the hon.
the Minister of Finance that this three thousand miles
of unpeopled country, that two sections of this road
are two great Saharas, two great deserts from which
nothing is to be hoped, could not certainly be expected
to cause a great rush of capitalists to construct the
Canadian Pacific Railway, and the Government stand
to-day charged before the people of Canada with having
failed in their duty to the people in their dealing with
this question after they had voluntarily assumed this
obligation. Instead of saying : " The late Government
engaged to give $30,000,000 and fifty million acres of
land to any capitalists who were prepared to construct
this road ; we are prepared to do that, and to act in
good faith, to go thus far but not beyond it," they
maintain that it was incumbent upon them to assume
that they must carry the work to completion, although
they did it with public money and as a public work. I
have already told the House that the Government have
undertaken to do this under the Railway Act, providing
that it should be constructed as under the Public Works
Act. It is not to be done by commissioners but directly
by the Minister of Public Works.

I now pass from the general question of the policy of
the Government in relation to this matter to the course
they have pursued in carrying out that policy. Before
going further, I desire to remind the House that these
gentlemen were not free to deal in the autocratic
manner regardless of parliamentary control and popular
opinions that they seem to have imagined, and that
they certainly have practised. When they were seeking
to obtain power, they gave the people of this country

245

Sir Charles Tupper

to understand the principles which would govern them
after they attained power, and prominent among those
principles was that which was stated by the Prime
Minister in a speech delivered on the 5th July, 1872,
in Montreal, the commercial capital of the Dominion.
He said : —

" The policy of the Liberal Party is to make the
Parliamentary Government supreme, to place the
Cabinet directly under the control of Parliament, to
take from them all power to use any part of the people's
money without a direct vote for each service. I might
point out, as an instance of the course the Liberal Party
will pursue, that in Ontario, when the Reform Govern-
ment came into power, they repealed a portion of the
Act granting aid to railways, so that all grants had to
receive a sanction of the House before a farthing could
be paid."

I could multiply instances in which the hon. gentle-
man pledged himself to the same principle and
promised that if he was entrusted with the manage-
ment of public affairs, " Parliamentary Government
should be supreme," and that no public money should
be touched without a direct vote for the purpose. Let
us see how, in carrying the law out, the hon. gentleman
has succeeded. I may say, further, that when he intro-
duced the Act giving him power to construct this road
in the Department of Public Works, as a Government
work, the hon. gentleman renewed the pledge and told
the House that, if they passed the Act — as will be seen
by the report of his speech in the Toronto "Globe" — not
a single cent of the people's money should be expended
except after a direct vote for the purpose. And, Sir,
the House will remember that one of the leading
features of the Act was, that no work should be per-
formed on it except under contracts, and that these
contracts must be given by public tender. I now

246

Appendix

come to a very unpleasant feature in connection with
the administration of this great question, and that is
to the purchase of steel rails ; and, I may say at once,
that, consistently with what I stated, when I rose
to-night that I would endeavour to avoid touching any
question that would, in the least degree, lead the House
away from the mode in which the Government had
dealt with the question, I shall, on the present occasion,
carefully abstain from touching anything in reference
to this matter except the purely business features, as a
transaction for which the House have a right to hold
the Ministry directly responsible. Now, the hon.
gentleman has brought down a statement of the cost
of the steel rails which were purchased without a vote
of a dollar being passed by this House. It has been
said elsewhere that there was a vote, that before the
money was paid a vote was taken. The hon. gentle-
man knows it is trifling with the intelligence of the
country, and I believe I am correct in saying it has
never been attempted so to trifle with the intelligence
of Parliament as to draw a distinction between a binding
contract being made by the Government of Canada,
not subject to the vote of Parliament, and the money
being paid. The fact that the tenders and the contracts
were laid upon the table of the House before the money
was paid does not touch the question at all. Had the
contracts been made subject to the approval of Parlia-
ment, there might have been a difference ; but they
were absolute, leaving no option to Parliament, without
being charged with bad faith in not carrying out an
arrangement made by the Government of Canada,
and that is an alternative which I am sure the hon.
gentleman would not say left it open to the House at
all. The hon. gentleman, who had pledged himself
that Parliamentary Government should be supreme ;
that if we passed the Act not a cent should be spent

247

Sir Charles Tupper

without a vote, startled the House and the country by
the statement that he had made contracts, binding
contracts on the Government, for the purchase of
50,000 tons of steel rails. We have now ascertained
something like the cost of the rails delivered in the
country. The return shows the dates of the payments
that were made and the charges that were made upon
them. I have had the interest carefully calculated. I
find, by the return brought down by the Government,
that $2,925,896 was paid for these rails, delivered in
Canada including the cost of freight and the cost of
inspection. The interest on that sum at 5 per cent
would, of course, be $146,294. And in the meantime at
which that interest became payable — because those
amounts of money were paid at different dates — but
the meantime at which the whole interest became pay-
able was the 5th November, 1875. So that from that
moment we have been paying interest amounting at
5 per cent to $146,294 per annum. On the 5th day of
May, which will be here in a very few days, we will have
a year and a half's interest accumulated, $219,441. To
show the price to which rails have since fallen — I may
say that I was prepared to produce testimony of an
authentic character on this question, and would have
done so if it had been convenient to call the Committee
on Public Accounts together — I speak on the authority
of a gentleman well qualified to judge who had made
a purchase of steel rails of the best quality, and had
them delivered at Prescott Junction during the past
year, at a cost of £7 15s. sterling — that is $37-71 per
ton. The freight from Montreal to Prescott I assume
to be, and I am told it is within the mark, $1-71.
Deduct that and you have the cost of the best steel
rails that can be made, and by parties who were ready
to supply any quantity of rails upon the same terms,
at about $46-00 per ton, laid down in Montreal. Now

248

Appendix

the House will see that 50,000 tons of steel rails and
fastenings, laid down in Montreal, cost us, according
to the return laid upon the table of the House by the
hon. the First Minister himself, $2,925,896, and the
price at which the same description of rails were laid
down at Montreal, within the last six months, was
$36-00 per ton. The cost, therefore, of the 50,000
tons if purchased within the past six months, instead
of when they were purchased in 1874, and paid for at
a mean date of November 5th, 1875, and from which
date we have been paying interest on the whole sum,
would have been $1,800,000 showing a dead loss on the
cost of the rails compared with what the same quality
could be purchased to-day of nearly a million dollars.
Now, add to that the interest payable before they can
be used and the dead loss to the country in relation to
that transaction alone, will exceed one million and a
half dollars. I do not, as I said before, intend to
touch any question outside the purely business nature
of this transaction, because I have abundant ground
for the motion I am submitting to the House without
introducing any collateral issue ; but I must call
attention to the fact that, in relation to a part of this
purpose, no tenders appear to have been asked. I
notice that five thousand tons were bought without
tenders and the freight to Vancouver Island seems to
have been arranged on the same private principle and
not by tender. This bears on the point I am charging
against the Government, that they have systematically
violated the binding obligation of the law, and their
own repeated pledges, that everything should be done
by contract in relation to those works. The charge of
$223,884 for inland transportation must be a mistake,
and for this reason : We are told by the Public Accounts,
we have been told by the speech of the hon. the First
Minister, that it cost $15 per ton to convey the rails

249

Sir Charles Tupper

from Duluth to St. Boniface, near Fort Garry. The
public documents on the table show that nearly thirteen
thousand tons of rails have been deposited there, and
the House will see at once that on that transaction,
carrying these rails that portion of the distance by
the Red River Transportation Company, must be some-
thing in the neighbourhood of $200,000. I am told
that was not done by public tender and contract. Now,
Sir, what was the necessity of buying these rails at
all ? Why should they be purchased ? What did the
Government want with 50,000 tons of steel rails ? We
have in a public document laid on the table of the
House a statement as to the condition in which the
Pacific Railway works there at that date ; and what do
they show ? Why, Sir, they show that the contract was
made for the first section, from Fort William to Sun-
shine Creek, a distance of 32 \ miles — the line ran
originally from Fort William to Shebandown, but it
was afterwards altered — on April 3rd, 1875 ; nearly
six months after the purchase of these 50,000 tons of
steel rails was made, the first contract requiring their
use was entered into ; and, Sir, we are told that on
January 1st, 1877, more than two years after this
purchase was made, that 25J miles requiring 2295
tons of the 50,000 are used ; and therefore that is all
of these 50,000 tons of steel rails purchased at a cost
of nearly $3,000,000 involving an interest of over
$140,000 per annum, which, at the end of this period,
these hon. gentleman, with ' all their anxiety — and I
have no doubt that they have pressed these works
forward, for they had reason to press them forward as
far as it was possible to do so, for the purpose of getting
these rails out of sight — yet, with all their efforts,
all they have been able to accomplish has been to use
2295 tons of rails, and that, too, not on a portion of
the Pacific Railway, but on a branch, unauthorized by

250

Appendix

Parliament, and built without the sanction of Parlia-
ment or the vote of Parliament. Also, on April 3rd,
1875, they made a contract, from Selkirk to Cross Lake,
77 miles ; and on June 7th, 1876, they made a contract
from Sunshine Creek to English River, 80 miles more.
As to both of these contracts, the first have the same
date April 3rd, 1875, from Fort William to Sunshine
Creek ; and April 3rd, from Selkirk to Cross Lake, 77
miles ; and on June 7th, 1876, with all the dispatch and
every effort they could make, they were enabled to put
80 miles more under contract, from Sunshine Creek to
English River ; and on January 9th, 1877, from Cross
Lake to Keewatin, so that, at this moment, there are
226 miles under contract, 37 miles of which were put
under contract this year, and 80 miles of it only on
June 7th last ; yet, Sir, we have the purchase made, as
I say, in November, 1874, of no less than three million
dollars' worth of steel rails, or 50,000 tons. Now, Sir,
I may be told, — but you have failed to credit us with
11,160 tons for the Intercolonial Railway — but I would
like to know how they came on the Intercolonial Railway.
I stand in the presence of Parliament and I am open to
correction, and I ask the attention of my hon. friend
from Chateauguay to the point which I am about to
make, when I say that there is no graver violation of
constitutional law — there is no graver violation of
Parliamentary principle, than the appropriation of the
public money, voted for one object, to another ; I am
open to the correction of the House, if I am right or
wrong in that statement, and I say that the Govern-
ment that would dare to take public money voted for
one purpose and apply it to another a thousand miles
away from the place for which it was voted, and for
which Parliament gave the vote, has violated the
Constitution and ignored the fundamental principles
of Parliamentary Government. I say that the power

251

Sir Charles Tupper

that Parliament has over the Government of the day,
is that sound constitutional maxim which deprives the
Government of the power of spending money unless
they have the authority of the House for it. I say that
grant the principle that you can take 11,000 tons of
rails, bought for the Canadian Pacific Railway with a
vote for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and take them
away and put them to another purpose totally different,
and I say that the Government can carry on the govern-
ment of the country despite the power of Parliament,
because it can use any vote for the Canadian Pacific
Railway for the ordinary expenses of the country, or
for the payment of their own salaries, or for anything
of that kind — I am giving, perhaps, an extreme illus-
tration, but it is because I want to draw the attention
of the House to the matter. It appears that the First
Minister, who claimed the confidence of the people
over and above all men in this country, because he was
going to carry out the principle of parliamentary
government, has become totally oblivious of his duty to
the House and his duty to the country in reference to
the expenditure of public money. I ask the House if
we have ever been asked to authorize a change of that
appropriation ? I ask the House if any authority was
ever given by it to the Government to change a dollar
of that appropriation for the Canadian Pacific Railway
to the Intercolonial Railway ? I am open to the cor-
rection, but I am not aware, and I do not believe, that
the Government have ever considered it to be their
duty to ask Parliament to grant any such authority.
If it has not, then I say, Sir, that one of the gravest
charges made in connection with this whole transaction,
and which stands against these hon. gentlemen, is
undertaking to so deal with public moneys for purposes
for which it was never intended by Parliament and
never voted. I wish also to draw the attention of the

252

Appendix

House to the fact that the hon. gentleman purchased
these rails in a falling market. He may say : "I had
no knowledge of that," but he cannot say that, because
I have under my hand the advice given to him by a
gentleman well conversant with these questions, and a
gentleman in whom that hon. gentleman has great
confidence in every possible way, of which he has given
evidence to the House — I mean, Sir, the Superintendent
of the Provincial Railways, Mr. Brydges — made a
report to that hon. gentleman, and he used these very
significant terms ; and this was on October 31st, 1874,
at the time when this subject was under consideration.
He says in a letter addressed to Hon. A. Mackenzie,
dated October 31st, 1874 :—

" There is no doubt whatever, that at the close of
1873 and the beginning of 1874, the steel market in
England was well known to be in a declining condition,
and no prudent man would buy rails at that time unless
he actually wanted them for immediate delivery."

Now, Sir, I do not, as I dare say the House knows,
always regard that gentleman as a supreme authority.
I believe this is pretty well understood ; but, I do say,
that it is not open to the hon. gentleman who leads the
House to take that position, because he has confidence
in him. He has shown it in every possible way that
one man can show that he has confidence in an indi-
vidual ; and he knew that Mr. Brydges was conversant
with this whole question, and he had under his hand
that letter at the very time he was entering upon this
purchase. Now, Sir, what answer does the hon. gentle-
man give to the House when he is charged with taking
three millions of the public money without the authority
of Parliament and without one dollar of it being voted
and making a binding contract for its expenditure for
50,000 tons of steel rails, which, at the end of this long

253

Sir Charles Tupper

period of time, he admits himself it is impossible to
apply, and he gives no prospect to the House of being
able to use them for long years to come. I have shown
the dates when these contracts, which are now under
construction, were let, and you know the difficulty of
going through a large portion of the country in question,
and its remoteness from supplies ; and I have shown
that with all the public money the Government could
spend, and all the pressure the Government could bring
to bear, as the Minister of Finance says, in an open and
settled country, it has taken seven long years to accom-
plish the construction of the Intercolonial Railway ;
and hon. gentlemen will see what time must elapse
before it could be possible to use 50,000 tons of rails on
the Canadian Pacific Railway. Why, Sir, the leader of
the Ministerialists, a member of the Government in the
Upper Branch, says they only expect to be able to get
the road through from Thunder Bay to Red River in
seven or eight years ; and the hon. the Finance Minister
admitted last night, or, at all events, recently that it
must be at least four or five years before that portion
of the road can be made. And yet these rails are lying
and rusting and deteriorating in value quite as much
as if they were moderately used.

Mr. Mackenzie. — Oh, nonsense.

Mr. Tupper. — I may be wrong, and I am open to
correction. But if it is nonsense, it is nonsense shared
in by nearly all experts connected with railway matters
in the world. This question of the oxidization of
rails had attracted the attention of scientific men
generally. It has attracted the attention of scientific
men, who had devoted their whole life and great ability
to the question of railways, and there was no more
interesting question than this of the oxidization of
rails. Some attributed the protection from oxidization
to a certain amount of electrical action caused by the

254

Appendix

passage of the cars over the rails, others held that when
the rails were piled up the wet accumulated and the rust
was more rapid than otherwise. But the fact remained
that rails deteriorated more rapidly when piled up than
when moderately used.

\Mr. Mackenzie. — Would the hon. gentleman name
any of these experts ?

[Mr. Tupper. — I did not suppose that a fact so
generally known would be contravened. But I will
undertake to look up for the hon. gentleman a very
elaborate statement on the subject which I trust will
satisfy him. I hear an honourable friend saying that :
" If the rust does not eat them up the interest will."

Mr. Dymond. — Would the hon. gentleman be able to
give us his authorities before he asks us to vote for his
motion ?

Mr. Tupper. — I think I shall be able to convince,
if not to convert, even such an incorrigible supporter
of the other side as the hon. member for North York,
without my being able to quote that specific authority
upon that point ; and will give an opportunity to the
hon. gentleman to show his independent position. The
hon. gentleman says Mr. Fleming advised him. I have
no hesitation in saying that I consider the authority of
the Chief Engineer on a great many questions connected
with such a work as quite sufficient to absolve the
Minister of Public Works, whoever he may be, from
any blame whatever. If the hon. gentleman can show
one single line signed by Sandford Fleming to him
stating that at a certain time a road would be in such
a state of forwardness as to require a certain amount
of rails, however mistaken Mr. Fleming may be, I will
at once acquit the First Minister of any blame in the
transaction, because he would give the House an
authority which any reasonable man would be satisfied
with. But I deny that Mr. Fleming is a special authority

255

Sir Charles Tupper

on this question. There are ten thousand men in this
country just as able, and thousands of them more able,
to advise the First Minister in relation to a purely
commercial and business question, than Mr. Fleming,
with all his engineering knowledge. If it was a question
in which the hon. gentleman had required Mr. Fleming's
professional knowledge, I should say his opinion was
sufficient. But we have to remember that all the
authority brought here from Mr. Fleming was furnished
after the transaction was over. And this authority
was given incidentally and verbally. This was only a
paltry matter of 50,000 tons of rails, an insignificant
matter of three million dollars, and it was not con-
sidered worth a sheet of paper to make a report upon.
In passing, the First Minister asked Mr. Fleming
verbally whether it would be a good thing to secure a
large quantity of steel rails.

Mr. Mackenzie. — I never asked anything of the kind.

Mr. Tupper. — So much the worse. Then the hon.
gentleman has no right to quote Mr. Fleming on the
subject as an authority. But supposing Mr. Fleming
had given him in writing the most elaborate report,
which, however, he did not give, I question the propriety
of the hon. gentleman procuring an ex parte statement
for the purpose of justifying an action for which he him-
self was responsible. I do not presume to question the
strict accuracy of every statement of Mr. Fleming's,
but I claim that the Government ought not to require
from a subordinate officer, however high his position,
a justification of acts of which they were responsible
themselves alone to Parliament, unless they show
that prior to the Act they had some evidence in writing
as to the necessity of the transaction. But who would
suspect that the First Minister would have justified a
transaction of this kind by quoting Mr. Fleming ? I
can show that he has no confidence in Mr. Fleming's

256

Appendix

judgment, even in a question where engineering entered
largely in consideration. On a question on which he
had devoted years of his life and had expended enormous
sums of public money, the hon. the First Minister had
treated the report of Mr. Fleming as unworthy of the
paper on which it was written. A great deal of contro-
versy had arisen in respect to the route of the Inter-
colonial Railway. Mr. Sandfield MacDonald's Govern-
ment appointed Mr. Fleming to make an exhaustive
survey for the purpose of locating the line of the Inter-
colonial Railway. That duty was vigorously discharged
for years ; and afterwards Mr. Fleming was called upon
to give his advice. He says on page 84, in a work
published by the First Minister and paid for by the
country, I presume :

" When Mr. Fleming entered upon the survey in
1864, his instructions on this point were very plain.
He was not called upon to select what he held to be the
most eligible line ; indeed, as he read his instructions,
he considered it to be his duty to withhold all indications
of preference. His own opinions were, however, ex-
plicitly and directly expressed, when it became his
duty to place them on record, in March, 1868, he was
requested by the Government to report on the route he
held to be the best. . . . The Chief Engineer, after
examining the arguments advanced in favour of each
route, placed on record his opinion that beyond a doubt
the line by the Bay of Chaleurs was the route to be
adopted."

And yet, after that declaration, made in a way to carry
all the weight of authority Mr. Fleming could throw
into any document, the hon. the First Minister treated
it then as he treats it now, as so much waste paper, and
said that the Government were throwing $8,000,000
into the sea in adopting the route that the Chief
Engineer, after surveying five years and, when called

s 257

Sir Charles Tupper

upon to express his opinion, deliberately declared it
was infinitely the best.

Mr. Mills. — It was your colleague Mr. Macdougall.

Mr. Tupper. — Mr. Macdougall was never my col-
league. I had not that honour. If the honour of the
originality of the expression is to be attributed to Mr.
Macdougall he has been servilely copied by a good
many hon. gentlemen opposite, with the fact before
them that Mr. Fleming had made a report in the most
authoritative manner in which it could be made, in
favour of that route ; and this on a question on which
his opinion was certainly entitled to respect. The hon.
gentleman had not shown that he consulted any com-
mercial men, though there were some of his friends
engaged in the trade, whose disinterested advice, if
taken, would have pointed to the fact, as I showed in
the House when the transaction was first announced,
that an enormous public loss was going to occur to the
country in consequence of that ill-advised purchase.
We have the fact that this country is to be saddled
with that enormous burden, that the legacy, the
monument which the hon. the First Minister would
leave behind him, when I trust, at an early day, his
monument as Prime Minister will be erected, would be
that transaction by which not less than $75,000 annually
for ever out of the public purse was lost to the people.
I ask the hon. member for North York (Mr. Dymond),
unbelieving as he is, if that is not sufficient ground,
without being able to give the authority of an expert,
that rails become oxidized by lying on the ground un-
used, to warrant any independent member in saying
that the hon. gentleman has violated the first principle
of Parliamentary Government by expending that
money without the authority of the House, and, owing
to this ill-advised and unfortunate purchase, he has
sunk over a million and a half of dollars of the people's

258

Appendix

money, never to be recovered, involving an annual
charge of $75,000 on the public treasury. Now, Mr.
Speaker, I am glad to leave so unpleasant a subject,
because I feel that I cannot deal with it, that I cannot
discharge my duty to this House and the country
temperately, as I am endeavouring to discharge it,
without reflecting not only upon the hon. the First
Minister, but upon the Parliament of Canada, and the
people of this country. I will exculpate the people
because, until they have the opportunity of passing
their own verdict upon it, we must absolve them from
blame, but this Parliament stands before the world and
the people of this country as prepared to sustain a
Prime Minister who forgets what he owes to Parlia-
ment, to his own public declarations and to the laws
on the statute book in this transaction, independent . of
the enormous amount of pecuniary loss which has been
entailed.

I now come to another matter in which the law has
been violated in the most direct and glaring manner.
I speak of the expenditure of money for the Canadian
Pacific Railway telegraph. The law provided that a
line of electric telegraph shall be constructed in advance
of the said railway, and branches along the whole
extent so soon as practicable after the location of the
line should be determined upon. No law could be more
easy of construction. It did not require an appeal to
the Minister of Justice of the day, the predecessor of the
present Minister (we know what his construction of the
law would have been) it did not require a reference to
any legal mind to say what the construction of that
law was. It became my duty to bring this subject of the
Canadian Pacific Railway telegraph before the House,
when, in 1875, the hon. the Premier again, in his truly
autocratic fashion, stated to the House that he had
entered into contracts to the extent of over $700,000

259

Sir Charles Tupper

for the construction of that telegraph line. I directed
the attention of the House to the illegality of the
proceedings ; I challenged the propriety of this work
being so carried out, and claimed that it could not be
done under the law. My action was followed up by my
late lamented friend, Mr. Hillyard Cameron, the member
for Cardwell, who joined in that opinion, and the hon.
member for Front enac (Mr. Kirkpatrick) followed by
moving a resolution condemning the Act as illegal, which
was seconded, I think, by the hon. member for Cardwell.
The House will remember the short discussion which
took place on that occasion, to which I intend briefly to
call the attention of the hon. the First Minister. I may
state that on November 10th, 1874, a contract was made
with Mr. F. Barnard to construct a telegraph line from
Cache Creek to Edmonton, 550 miles. That contract
required the telegraph to be completed on October 2nd,
1876, and yet, on April 20th, 1877, the hon. the First
Minister in his place in this House last night, admitted
that he did not know within one hundred or two hundred
miles of that point where the Canadian Pacific Railway
would go. Yet he made a contract, knowing that he
had not a particle of authority in law or a vote from
Parliament, to spend one dollar on the construction
of a mile of telegraph, except as the railway line may
have been located ; nevertheless, he made a binding
contract with Mr. Barnard, to construct 550 miles of
telegraph from Edmonton to Cache Creek, which,
according to the hon. gentleman's statements last night,
would not be within two hundred miles of the point
where it is most probable the railway would go.

Mr. Mackenzie. — I did not say a word about that.

Mr. Tupper. — I am open to correction if Fort George
is not between 100 and 200 miles from Cache Creek.

Mr. Mackenzie. — I did not say that the road would
go to Fort George.

260

Appendix

Mr. Tupper. — No. But I will show the hon. gentle-
man and the House that he had decided that it should
go to Fort George ; that after the matter was discussed
in the House, that after the vote was taken as to the
illegality of the proceedings, the present Minister of
Justice, the Minister of the Interior, and Mr. Justice
Moss having refused to vote with the hon. gentleman,
that it was not illegal when attacked in its most vital
part — these gentlemen, including two of the most able
minds in the House, refused to support him. A few
days afterwards the hon. the First Minister telegraphed
to Mr. Barnard to stop work, and he endeavoured to
transfer the construction of the telegraph from Edmon-
ton to Cache Creek to Fort George, showing that he
had then decided that was to be the railway line. The
contract was not merely for the construction of a
telegraph line ; it was to aid the construction of a
railway as well, because it was given out by the hon.
gentleman in his statement in the House that he had
contracted with the telegraph constructor to clear the
road for 132 feet, which would be so much work done
towards the construction of the road itself. Yet all
this was done, when the hon. gentleman according to his
own statement last night, confessed he did not know
within 200 miles where the road was to be. The hon.
gentleman was very much mistaken in the statements
he made to the House on that occasion. I will not say
more than that, because I do not wish to be supposed
to bring a charge of wilful mis-statement against the
hon. gentleman.

Mr. Mackenzie. — Of course not.

Mr. Tupper. — If I did wish to give it an unpleasant
turn I could submit a great deal of authority for the
statement I will lay before the House. I do not wish,
however, to be so understood. I know the hon. gentle-
man's mind is burdened with an enormous amount of

261

Sir Charles Tupper

work, and one of the reasons he has so signally failed in
administering the important Department of Public
Works is because the hon. gentleman is altogether over-
weighted, in undertaking that which no man, however
great his powers, can discharge, viz. to fill the position
of Premier with efficiency and vigour, and at the same
time discharge the laborious and almost overwhelming
duties devolving upon any Minister of Public Works. I
feel on this, as on other occasions, that the hon. the First
Minister cannot carry in his mind all the statements
necessary in order to meet charges which may be brought
against his ministry. To-day it is our duty to bring
charges against hon. gentlemen opposite. To-morrow,
no distant to-morrow, I believe, it will be their duty to
criticize our acts, and I trust when the time comes that
we shall be judged in the same lenient and kindly spirit
in which I have endeavoured to judge the hon. gentle-
men who now occupy the Treasury benches. Well, Sir,
the question arose, and it was charged that this contract
was made and that the telegraph was being constructed
according to law, without the authority of law, and
in opposition to the Act, because no line had been
located. On page 1013 of Hansard of 1875, I find the
following :

" Hon. Mr. Mackenzie said the line had been located
where the contracts had been let, and he conceived the
Government were acting according to law."

I have shown that this contract was let to a point
that the hon. gentleman was unable to tell us whether
it was on the line or within 200 miles of it ; and that is
six months after the time fixed for the completion of
the contract.

An Hon. Member. — There is no contract let.

Mr. Tupper. — No, not for the railway, the line is not
located. The report proceeds : —

262

Appendix

" Mr. Schultz said that the only portion of the work
that had been done was that under contract of the
Pacific Railway to be useful in the construction of that
work. He wished to know if the route of the railroad
had been so far established as to admit of the contract
of Messrs. Glass, Sifton & Co., about 23 miles, and that
had not been placed where the line was completed by
any means. No location had been made then, and so far
as he (Mr. Schultz) could understand, no location was
intended to be made where that line was put up.

" Hon. Mr. Mackenzie said the hon. gentleman's
statement was incorrect.

" Mr. Plumb said the line must be put up along the
route of the location of the telegraph line, or were the
contractors to locate the line for the Government.

" Hon. Mr. Mackenzie said he had already stated the
line was to be put up where the road was to be located
(these being the Engineer's instructions based upon
his original suggestion), and he did not know that a
single mile of telegraph line was being erected anywhere
except on the line of the road.

" Mr. Kirkpatrick asked the Premier if he could tell
the House whether the line was erected from Fort
Edmonton to Cedar Creek. Unless this had been done,
and it was known definitely where the line of railway
was to run, the contracts had been improperly given out.

" Hon. Mr. Mackenzie said these contracts were given
out in accordance with the very letter of the Statute,
and the House had voted money to carry them out."

On March 31st this motion was made in the House,
and this discussion took place, and there is a very
significant commentary on what took place. According
to this document brought down and laid upon the
table of the House by the Government, the following
significant message was sent to the contractor, Mr.
Barnard : —

263

Sir Charles Tupper

" OTTAWA, $th April, 1875.

" Discontinue building of telegraph line, British
Columbia, under contract with this Department. You
will not be called upon to proceed with the work for
some months. At what price would you erect telegraph,
say forty-five (45) miles from Quesnel on old telegraph
trail, clearing twenty (20) feet wide ?

" Signed, F. BRAUN,

" Secretary."

So that the gentleman who had a binding contract to
finish his work by October, 1876, is told to stop his
work, and is coolly asked not to send in a tender in
accordance with the provision of the Act that no work
shall be done except by open public tender, but to put
in a statement as to what he would erect 45 miles of
telegraph line for. Mr. Barnard's reply is a very
significant one : —

" 1 had completed 50 miles of the line, with the
exception of erecting the poles and attaching the wire
(which can be done at a small cost), receiving a certificate
for $8000, which has been paid."

So that at the time when the House was informed
by the hon. gentleman that no work was being done,
except where the railway was being located, $8000 had
been paid to the contractor for wrork done at a point
which it is not known to-day whether it is within 200
miles of the line or not ; and Mr. Barnard shows that
he had then involved himself in engagements in trying
to fill this Government contract to the extent of $43,720.
The Public Accounts show a payment to Mr. Barnard
to December 31st on this work of $18,284. Now I think
that the most incredulous, the most critical gentleman
on the other side of the House will have some difficulty
in relieving himself of the responsibility of saying that a
Government who would thus undertake, in violation of

264

Appendix

a statute, to expend money contrary to, and in open
defiance of the law, and to involve the country in a
large amount of utterly useless expenditure in con-
nection with this work, are not fairly chargeable with
being open to public censure. Now, Sir, I have drawn
the attention of the House to the mode in which the
Government failed in their duty in reference to the
purchase of steel rails. I have drawn the attention of
the House to the mode in which they have failed in their
duty in carrying out the railway in connection with the
telegraph line ; and I have shown that in both cases a
large amount of public money has been sacrificed as
well as all Parliamentary practice and principle ignored.
I will now briefly turn the attention of the House to the
mode in which the Government have carried on the
contract for the construction of the Georgian Bay
branch. As I have stated before, they declared that this
was a question of such vital urgency and hot haste that
they must go forward, notwithstanding the remon-
strances of the hon. gentlemen in Opposition that no
instrumental survey had been made, and that the
Government had no means of informing themselves in
relation to the nature of the country or the character of
the work. The hon. gentleman made a contract for the
construction of the Georgian Bay branch. That was in
February, 1875, during the time that Parliament was
sitting. It would have been better, under the circum-
stances, considering the extraordinary character of that
contract, although he had obtained authority from the
House, it would only have been wise to take the House
into his confidence before the contract was made. That
was not done ; nor was the approval of Parliament asked
for that contract. I myself put a motion on the paper
to condemn the Georgian Bay contract, but the First
Minister, by adjourning the House, prevented its being
reached. I am not now going to say one word touching

265

Sir Charles Tupper

the desirability of the work ; but one thing is obvious,
Sir, that if the work was a mistake, then there is no
justification for the step they have taken. If it was a
matter of such vital urgency as the First Minister
declared to the House, how is he going to justify himself
for folding his hands at the end of a couple of years, in
relation to this work, which he declared to be so vitally
necessary so long ago as November, 1874, two years
and a half ago ? How did the hon. gentleman discharge
his duty to the House and the country in relation to the
contract itself ? The law was plain. The law declared
that he was precluded and prohibited from giving that
contract to anybody unless they could satisfy him and
give conclusive evidence that they possessed a capital
of $4000 per mile. Now, Sir, I draw the attention of
hon. gentlemen to this fact, that the amount I am
stating is far below the sum required by law, for this
reason : instead of having 85 miles, according to Mr.
Foster, it is 105 miles, and according to Mr. Fleming it is
103 J miles, a pretty striking illustration, I think, to the
House of the mode in which the Government plunged
blindly and contrary to the remonstrances given them
from this side of the House, into the undertaking of this
contract at all ; but I say that there is a law which pre-
cluded the Minister of Public Works from letting one
mile of that contract until he had satisfied himself that
Mr. Foster possessed the capital of $340,000, according
to his own estimate of the distance, under the Act.
Now, Sir, what was Mr. Foster's position ? The hon.
gentleman has been asked, What evidence had you of
Mr. Foster's ability to carry on this work ? and he was
obliged to answer, None ; and this with regard to a
contract concerning which the law obliged him to have
satisfactory testimony before he let it, that Mr. Foster
had a capital of $340,000 ; and that is only an insignifi-
cant portion of the capital which was required. The

266

Appendix

hon. gentleman did not take any means of ascertaining
whether Mr. Foster was worth a single dollar ; and we
all know now that he was not worth a dollar ; and that
when the contract was let it was a matter of notoriety
that he had involved himself by the purchase of the
Canada Central Railway. He was then bound to the
payment of interest, which he could not begin to pay at
all ; and, in fact, no man in the country stood in a
more embarrassed position than Mr. A. B. Foster at
the time when the contract was given him. The follow-
ing telegram, from a daily paper published a few days
since, says : —

" The Financial storm which has overtaken the hon.
A. B. Foster, the railway contractor, is due to the
following causes : — In 1871 he bought the rights of Mr.
Bolckow in the Brockville and Ottawa and Canada
Central railways, on the understanding that he was to
pay a certain sum for them in 10 years, and to commence
paying instalments of the purchase price at the end of
5 years."

I stated it was no secret that he was struggling with
difficulties with this gigantic load of debt around his
neck, at the very moment when the contract was given
him. It further says : —

" The price was large, and in addition he bought
from Mr. Bolckow a million and a quarter dollars' worth
of iron rails, which he never paid for. The price of the
interest in the railways and rails was over two million
dollars. He has paid some small amount of interest on
the railway purchases, but nothing on the rails. The
railway companies have also instituted several suits
against Mr. Foster in Ontario, and proceedings have
been taken to foreclose on the bonds held by Mr.
Bolckow. Several bills of defendants now running have
not yet been sued on. Messrs. O'Halloran, Q.c., and
Edward Carter, Q.C., counsel for Mr. Foster, are con-

267

Sir Charles Tupper

testing the writ of attachment on the ground that the
affidavit is irregular and insufficient, and also upon the
merits charging that the Brockville and Ottawa Rail-
way Company, plaintiffs, have no claim whatever against
Mr. Foster. The contestation was presented at Sweets-
bury to-day."

Now, I say, Sir, that the First Minister is called upon
to justify himself to this House, and say why he let
this contract in the face of the law, and contrary to law,
ignoring all its provisions, and treating Parliament as if
they were his teachers instead of being what Parliament
always ought to be, the masters of the Government of
the day. Parliament always should hold the position
of requiring the Government to fulfil the law or vacate
the position that such non-fulfilment shows that they
are not worthy to fill ; and I say that the hon. gentle-
man has to justify himself to this House, under these
circumstances, for making this enormous contract with
Mr. Foster and making a contract to build a line of
railway which they did not know the length of within
20 miles at the time ; and upon which no survey had
been made and concerning which no estimate had been
prepared. The hon. gentleman violated the law if he
has built this work under the Public Works Act. What
does this Act say ? it declares that : —

" It shall be the duty of the Chief Engineer to prepare
maps, plans and estimates for all public works which
are about to be constructed or repaired by the Depart-
ment."

And yet, Sir, without a plan, without an estimate,
without anything whatever, without even a recom-
mendation from the Chief Engineer, this work is entered
upon ; and that without a survey, without the slightest
means being taken to ascertain what ought to be done
with reference to a work which was considered of such

268

Appendix

vital importance that it must be rushed through without
Parliament having permission to pass on the contract at
all. It was thus undertaken, and a binding contract
made with the Government. Well, Sir, that law was
violated ; and where are we to-day ? Why, to-day we
are told that $41,000 of public money has been paid.
Why paid ? How paid ? Upon the certificate of the
Chief Engineer ? The hon. gentleman has never re-
ceived such a certificate. The Chief Engineer of the
C. P. Railway never signed a certificate for a dollar of
this $41,000 ; and, Sir, it was not only paid without such
a certificate, but also without proper vouchers. Read
the document brought down in relation to this matter.
Let the attention of this House be drawn for a moment
to the paper — the extraordinary paper laid on the
table of the House in connection with this most extra-
ordinary contract — and what will it show ? Why, Sir, it
will show that we have $41,000 paid on the Georgian
Bay contract. It will show, Sir, that we have the con-
tract cancelled, and, Sir, this most extraordinary docu-
ment will show the mode in which the public work is
carried on. I think that this document will hold a very
remarkable position. On November 27th Mr. Foster
says : —

44 We will have the profile of the Canadian Central
Railway in readiness to submit to the Department in
the course of three or four weeks, and the remainder to
French River in about two months."

On December 20th, he asks for important modifica-
tions. On December 23rd, Mr. Fleming advises an
extension of time for one year, and that the substitution
of 26 miles of navigation would be reasonable. On
February 8th Mr. Foster says that his total outlay
amounted to $63,000. On February 9th Mr. Fleming
says : —

269

Sir Charles Tupper

" That the porportion payable on the expenditure of
$38,864 would be $9716 less 15% to be retained under
the ninth section of the contract."

One would suppose that the Government would
respect a declaration of that kind from the Chief
Engineer, but it appears that this was not the case.
It seems that the hon. Minister of Public Works, as I
stated before, delights in showing Parliament that he
recognizes no authority here or anywhere else, and
that anything contained in the Statute Book or any
respect for Parliament is not worth a moment's con-
sideration. On February 28th a Minute of Council
was passed on the recommendation of the Minister of
Public Works, advising that this contract be can-
celled and that the $83,000, which the law required
should be deposited as security for the fulfilment of
the contract, should be returned.

This deposit belonged to the people of Canada and
it ought not to have been returned, without the sanction
of Parliament, to Mr. Foster. The Minute of Council
said that : " The amount claimed by Mr. Foster to
the 1st instant is $38,862.28, $20,000 of which may be
safely paid." On April 28th, Mr. Fleming said : —

" I find by the accounts furnished by Mr. Foster,
that there are only receipts for about $20,000. Accord-
ingly, I would advise that he be called upon to furnish
complete vouchers, and that the whole be placed in the
Audit Department for examination."

I think that this was a very reasonable and practical
suggestion, and in this the House will quite agree with
me. But instead of that being done, instead of the
suggestion of the Chief Engineer being carried out —
although the First Minister is so ready to fall back on
that gentleman to support himself whenever he can
do so — it appears it was treated with contempt, and the

270

Appendix

answer is an Order in Council dated May 6th recom-
mending the payment of $36,838.15, and that the
balance on the $50,996, the total sum claimed, be paid
on the production of vouchers, and this was done,
although Mr. Fleming had shown that only $9716 less
15 % could be paid under the contract.

Mr. Mackenzie. — When did Mr. Fleming say that ?

Mr. Tupper. — Mr. Fleming said in his letter dated
February 9th : —

" The proportion thereof, payable on an expenditure
of $38,864.28 would be $9716.07 less 15% to be re-
claimed under the ninth section of the contract."

The difficulty of readily finding these three state-
ments is, that the return is put together in the most
extraordinary manner : One half is backwards and
the other half, I was going to say, is upside down.

In the Order of Council of April 28th, Mr. Fleming
says : —

" I find, of the accounts furnished by Mr. Foster,
there are only receipts for about $20,000. Accordingly,
I would advise that he be called upon to furnish com-
plete vouchers, and that the whole be placed in the Audit
Department for examination."

On May 6th, a few days afterwards, without any such
audit the Minister of Public Works recommends that
$36,838.15 be paid, deducting the sum of $20,000
already paid.

Mr. Mackenzie. — That was not the balance of $50,000.

Mr. Tupper. — He further recommends that he be
authorized to pay the remaining accounts to an extent
not exceeding in the whole the said sum of " $50,966.27,
as soon as such vouchers are presented as shall be
satisfactory."

Mr. Mackenzie. — Does the hon. gentleman call that
a balance ?

271

Sir Charles Tupper

Mr. Tupper. — I said the balance on $50,000 — that is,
the balance remaining on $50,000. The hon. gentleman
misunderstood me.

Mr. Mackenzie. — I did not misunderstand the hon.
gentleman. He said there was a balance of $50,000, and
when I called to him to show where that balance was
stated he looked for it, but could not find it. Now he
makes out that he did not mean that. The amount
referred to was made up of the following items :
Buildings, etc., at mouth of French River, $9,494.83 ;
Survey, $31,838.15 ; Head Office expenses and fees to
consulting engineer $5000 ; contingent expenses at 10
per cent $4633 ; total $50,966.27. So that instead of
there being a balance of $50,000, that is the sum total of
the claim of Mr. Foster, and which the Minister has re-
commended should be paid as soon as such vouchers were
presented as were satisfactory, first as to the character
and usefulness of the work at French River ; and, secondly,
the actual payment of the several sums for purposes
defined in the Order in Council of February 5th, 1876.

Mr. Tupper. — If the hon. gentleman understood me
to say there was a balance of $50,000 after the $36,838
were paid he misunderstood me. I meant that the value
$50,966 was the whole amount claimed by Mr. Foster.
I do not want to detain the House while I read the
whole amended Order of Council. I said that Mr.
Fleming stated that he could only find receipts for
$20,000, and that Mr. Fleming advised that Mr. Foster
be called upon to furnish complete vouchers, and that
the whole be placed in the Audit Department for
examination ; but, instead of that, as far as any evidence
given to the House shows, no such audit was placed.
The hon. the Minister of Public Works recommended
that $36,838.15 be paid, and also that the balance on
$50,966.27 be paid on production of vouchers. I trust
I have made myself clear to the hon. gentleman. It does

272

Appendix

not require the slightest exaggeration in order to make the
case sufficiently strong, as I think I have convinced the
hon. gentleman. We come now to the case of the Canada
Central Railway. I have shown the House the mode in
which Mr. Foster is dealt with. That a contract was
made with him without his showing that he had sufficient
capital to carry it out ; that he entered upon the work ;
and that he got a certain amount for that work. And,
if the House wants to know more as to the character of
that work, it can refer to Mr. Ridout, who had been
appointed by the Government in charge of that work,
and who, a short time before these payments were made,
gave a most remarkable history of the mode in which
the work was proceeded with. On November 22nd
Mr. Ridout, who had been sent to examine the work,
says that Mr. Foster's engineer, Mr. Harris, was unable
to afford him any positive information of the result of
their survey so far as made, having only in his office a
few rough pieces of profiles and maps of portions of the
early survey in a very unfinished state, no proper
profile or map having as yet been made. If the House
will turn to the Journals for 1875 they will find the
terms on which the Government was authorized by
this House to make a contract in relation to the Canada
Central. What were they ? : —

14 That the Company shall, within one month from the
ratification of this order in Council by the House of
Commons, satisfy the Minister of Public Works that they
have entered into a bona-fide contract, or contracts for
the building of the railway, and have provided sufficient
means, with the Government bonus, to secure the com-
pletion of the line on or before the first day of January,
1877, and also that the Company shall, from the date of
such contracts, make continuously such progress as will
justify the hope of the completion of the line within the
time mentioned."

T 273

Sir Charles Tupper

Now there is the basis on which the Government
alone could make a contract and the terms upon which
alone they could make any payment. In the first
instance I want to know with whom they made the
contract ? They are obliged by law, they are com-
pelled by the action of the House to ascertain that
this Company have sufficient means with that bonus to
complete the work by the 1st January, 1877, and they
are only permitted by their Order in Council to make a
contract with parties who proved beyond peradventure
they had the means. Whom did they make it with ?
They made it with Mr. A. B. Foster, not content with
giving the contract for a Georgian Bay branch, in which
they were required by law to have proofs that he had
a capital of $340,000. They gave another contract for
the Canada Central to the same man without the
slightest evidence that he possessed a single dollar or
had the means of doing anything whatever. It is then
apparent that this contract was made in the teeth of
the Order in Council with a party that the Order in
Council excludes from making such a contract at all,
limiting as it does, the payment to a person who had
made the contract and was not making such continuous
progress as would complete it within the time. Yet
$68,000 of the public money of the country has been
paid over to this Mr. A. B. Foster, in violation of the
express terms of the Act of this House and without the
evidence that he was doing anything at all except those
imperfect surveys, which are treated with much con-
tempt by the Government engineer who was sent up
to see what he was doing and on what pretext he was
claiming to be paid. He was paid all the money he
professed to have expended on his surveys, and that
without vouchers or audit ; without the authority of
law, in opposition to the express terms of his contract,
then he was paid $68,000 on the pretext that he had

274

Appendix

deposited a lot of iron rails somewhere. The line is not
located, the surveys have not been finished according
to Mr. Fleming's statement and Mr. Ridout's statement.
No one knows where the line is to begin, whether 20
miles from Renfrew or not, because the estimated 85
miles from Burnt Lake to the Georgian Bay turned
out to be 105 miles ; so that from the vicinity of
Douglas to Burnt Lake would not, improbably, be 140
miles if the same inaccurate estimate was made. So
they do not know if these rails, what few are left of
them, are now within 20 miles of where the line was to
commence. These iron rails are shown to be of the
most worthless character, but they were valued by
Mr. Foster, during the past season, at $48.00 per ton,
and he was paid $68,000 on them at that rate. That is
not the worst, it will probably turn out that these rails
are owned by parties in England, that if they are of no
more value than we have reason to suppose, it is of
very little consequence what became of them. It is
said that what were used for ballasting were worn out,
they were so utterly worthless. After Mr. Foster was
paid $68,000 in violation of the law, in violation of
the Order in Council, which required him to be going
on continuously with the work and showing that he could
complete this contract, he coolly asked the loan of 100
tons of those rails ; and this good-natured Government,
this Government which seems to be owned by Mr.
Foster, say very well, but you must deposit some
security, so he deposited some South-Eastern Railway
bonds ; and when we asked the First Minister, who had
no more authority to take and lend that 100 tons of
rails than to lend money out of the Treasury, after
paying more than twice as much as they were worth,
what security did you get ? — He says, South-Eastern
Railway bonds. We asked if he knew whether they are
worth anything. No ! he says that he is unable to say

275

Sir Charles Tupper

that they can be sold at all, and I believe for the best
reason that they have, as far as I can ascertain, no
marketable value. Then, Sir, when gentlemen in
Opposition, patient and enduring as we are, ready to
pass over almost anything that is not of such a grave
nature as to compel us to do our duty to the country,
when we call attention to it, and it is a matter of in-
vestigation, what turns out to be the fact ? Why, that
instead of 100 tons being gone, there are 227 tons gone,
and without any authority, without any security,
without any pretence, without even the formality of
asking for the last 127 tons. I do the Government the
justice to say that I believe they were ignorant of the
fact ; that this property which had been paid for, that
this property which belonged to the country, was being
used by Mr. Foster as if it was his own private property.
That is the condition of things on which I think we are
justified in asking the House to say it cannot agree to
endorse the policy of the Government, or the mode in
which the Canadian Pacific Railway has been carried
out.

I must say something about a most remarkable trans-
action ; that is, a report brought down, I believe, to the
Senate — at all events it is a public document — showing
what is going on at the interesting section of the country
called " Thunder Bay." I said before that I would
carefully guard myself against using a word or throwing
out insinuations which might be construed into a
personal assault or anything outside of the necessary
criticism of this work as a public transaction.

Mr. Mackenzie. — Do not spare yourself.

Mr. Tupper. — I wish I could be spared, I believe the
Minister of Public Works — unlike me — is incapable
of appreciating the pain it gives me to be compelled
to criticize the conduct of any public man as my
duty obliges me to criticize his. If he knew the

276

Appendix

pleasure it gave me to say, as I did two years ago,
that I believed there was no man in this country
better able to fill the office of Minister of Public Works
than himself, he would appreciate the pain with which
I am now forced to admit that I was no prophet, and
that the administration of his Department has obliged
me to reconsider that compliment which I was so happy
to be able to bestow, in this House, upon the hon.
gentleman. But, Sir, I have shown that this railway
line was taken down there, and this branch com-
menced, without the authority of Parliament. There
is no law for the construction of the Thunder Bay
branch. We have been told that this is an economical
Government. Well, we have had a specimen of their
economy in this connection. But when I tell the House
that the return brought down shows that over $51,000
have been paid for about a mile of right of way at
Kaministiquia, that wild and unsettled country, they
can form some conception of how the Government
are expending the public money. Here is a country
which has been described — and I need not describe
again — by the hon. the Minister of Finance as a road
running through an unpeopled desert, and which $51,000
would almost have bought the fee simple of a few years
ago. No doubt the value of property has risen from
the fact of the Government locating a road there,
but it is an important question for discussion why
it should have gone to that point instead of to Prince
Arthur's Landing, or why it should have gone to a
place which lengthens the road.

Mr. Mackenzie. — It shortens the road.

Mr. Tupper. — Any person looking at the map dis-
tributed to the House will find that the one line is
curved and the other almost direct. But I believe I
am right in saying that private enterprise is building a
line to Prince Arthur's Landing, and that the Govern-

277

Sir Charles Tupper

ment of Ontario have subsidized the line to the extent
of $2000 per mile to make this connection. I believe
that returns brought down to the House prove that
Mr. Baillairge has shown that there are forty-three
days more of navigation to Prince Arthur's Landing
than to the point where the Government are making
the terminus of the line. I am now quoting from the
report brought down by the Government. Mr. Baillairge
is a gentleman of high attainments, a gentleman who
has long been in the Public Works Department, and
who was sent up specially to examine into this question,
and this is his report. It may be worthy of the con-
sideration of the House or it may be not.

Mr. Mackenzie.— -It cannot be correct.

Mr. Tupper. — If the hon. gentleman says it is not
correct he is correcting his own return submitted
on the authority of his own engineer. I do not want
to detain the House, and will therefore pass over
that without taking time to turn over authorities ;
but whenever the accuracy of any statement I make
is challenged I think I shall be just as likely to give
as decisive testimony as I have given now.

Mr. Mackenzie. — Where is that report ?

Mr. Tupper. — It is the report relating to the Port
Francis locks or canal.

Mr. Mackenzie. — Perhaps the hon. gentleman will
allow me to correct him, because I do not think he
deliberately intended to mislead the House. The date
the hon. gentleman quoted has no reference to the river
or Thunder Bay at all ; it is the chain of lakes away in
the interior 200 miles from this.

Mr. Tupper. — I will show the House that if any
person is to blame it is the one who made the report.
The hon. gentleman calls Kaministiquia the present
terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and I
assume, as this return says : " River Kaministiquia

278

Appendix

the present terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway,"
and puts the words " opening twenty-fifth May and
closing twentieth of October" opposite, that it applied
to the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Mr. Mackenzie. — The figures are not opposite.

Mr. Tupper. — The hon. gentleman will see if I am
inaccurate in the statement that inaccuracy has followed
the extraordinary way in which this return has described
the terminus.

Mr. Baillairge has put down navigation as opening
on twenty-fifth May and closing on the twenty-sixth
October. He may not have meant that, but it is cer-
tainly calculated to give that impression, and I am
glad the hon. gentleman has called my attention to it.

Mr. Mackenzie. — The return will not read that way
at all.

Mr. Tupper. — I read it in that way, and I am glad, if
there is any error, that the hon. gentleman has drawn
attention to it, because I can assure him I am most
anxious to avoid the slightest error of statement in
criticizing these matters. But, at all events, there is a
considerable difference between the opening and closing
of navigation at the two points.

Mr. Mackenzie. — No.

Mr. Tupper. — Why even the hon. gentleman's own
correction admits considerable difference, and when we
take into consideration, Sir, the fact we are building
400 miles of railway from Thunder Bay to the Red River,
and that we are going to this enormous expenditure
of public money for the construction of a road that
is to be practically useless for something like at least
six months in the year, it does become important,
Sir, even to the extent of a few days as to the opening
of navigation ; but, Sir, I did not propose to discuss
whether an error had been made or not in the selection
of one point or the other ; but I want to draw the

279

Sir Charles Tupper

attention of the House to this point, the amount paid
for the right of way at Kaministiquia. Now, Sir, it is
perfectly obvious that the location of a railway enor-
mously increases the value of land ; but I deny that
speculators — and these people are declared to be
speculators ; it is so stated in this document which has
been brought down by the Government — and persons
who have gone in to purchase land on speculation at a
merely nominal figure, have a right to be paid by the
Government the increased value of their land owing to
the location of the railway there. When the Inter-
colonial Railway was located, the principle observed
by the Government and by the Commissioners in the
payment for right of way was the rational principle of
paying the amount that the land would have been
worth if the railroad had not been located there, because
it is perfectly obvious that was all the parties owning it
were entitled to.

Mr. Bowell. — That is all the Act allowed.

Mr. Tupper. — Yes ; that is all the Act allowed, and
all it ought to allow, because it is perfectly apparent
that the Government would pay otherwise twice the
increased value of the land, and that when the parties
are in most instances only too glad to give the right
of way. It is proved that this appears on the papers
to have been a town, but it was a town without any
houses. I believe that after they made up their minds
to sell to the Government a rough shanty was erected
on it to give it additional value, but all the streets and
everything else about it existed only on paper and in
the imagination of these wise and prudent speculators
who managed to pocket the people's money without
giving any equivalent consideration for it. Now, Sir,
what do you suppose was paid by the Intercolonial
Railroad Commissioners for the right of way on five
hundred miles in round numbers of the line of the

280

Appendix

Intercolonial Railway ? and this was proved a wild
and unsettled country like Kaministiquia, but it ran
in many places through the finest, the most arable and
the most valuable land to be found in the Provinces
of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and Quebec — only
about $273,000 ; and, Sir, I may say that 80 miles of
right of way, with station grounds, gravel pits and
everything that the Government required in connection
with the construction of a road through Nova Scotia
in the splendid counties of Cumberland and Colchester
through the town of Truro and through the village of
Amherst including damages to buildings and for build-
ings and for everything else, cost only about three
thousand dollars more than for this mile of right of
way at Kaministiquia. What will the House say when
I tell them that, according to the rate paid for the
roadway at Thunder Bay, the Government have paid at
the rate of nearly three millions of money more than
for the whole cost of constructing the Intercolonial
Railway with all the appurtenances and with all the
rolling stock and with everything else on it ; and that
in fact these 500 miles, according to the rate paid at
Thunder Bay, would have cost instead of $272,420,
which was the entire cost of 500 miles through Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick and Quebec, $25,709,500
for the right of way alone ; such would have been
the cost had the owners of land on the Intercolonial
been paid at the same rate as these speculators at
Kaministiquia, who had thus been permitted to pocket
the people's money. Sir, I only need to draw the
attention of the House to these figures to show that
the most wasteful extravagance in the use of public
money has been exhibited by the Government in relation
to that matter.

An Ron. Gentleman. — -Who got it ?

Mr. Tupper. — An hon. gentleman asks me who got it ;

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Sir Charles Tupper

but to answer that would take me to another branch
of the subject, which, as I stated at the outset, I wanted
to avoid ; I must therefore decline to say anything
with reference to that enquiry. But, Sir, I now come
to another matter in connection with this work, and
that is, the Fort Francis locks. I will not refer to it
at length, and I will not occupy much of the time of
the House with it, because it has been laid before the
House previously ; but I must say this, Sir, that the
policy of the Government was stated in very distinct
terms in 1875 by the Minister of Public Works, and it
was this : —

" In addition therefore to the railways surveys from
Lake Shebandowan to Lake Superior, a distance of
forty-five miles, and from Red River to Rat Portage, a
distance of 114 miles, we have felt it desirable to make
correct surveys during the season of the intervening
distance. The entire distance from Red River to Lake
Superior is in round numbers 430 miles by the Dawson
route. Of this we have surveyed and asked for tenders
for 155 or 160 miles. This leaves a distance between the
two points of 270 miles, of that distance we will be able
by constructing two cheap locks at Fort Francis to
obtain from Rat Portage uninterrupted steam navigation
for a distance of nearly 200 miles to Sturgeon Falls at the
east end of Rainy Lake."

He further says : —

' We hope within two years, or two and a half at the
outside, that we will have a railway finished at the
eastern and western ends, and, with these and the locks
at Fort Francis, we expect that the distance altogether
may be traversed in four or five days at the outside,
that now take on the average from nine to twelve
days."

That was the policy of the Government as avowed in
1875 ; and I may state that the policy announced in

282

Appendix

the speech of the hon. gentleman in submitting the
Railway Act of 1874 was the immediate construction
of a through line of railway from Lake Superior to Red
River. In 1875, a year afterwards, that policy was
abandoned, and it was proposed to substitute for it
a mixed route of land and water — 270 miles of naviga-
tion with a short line of railway at each end. The
attention of the hon. Minister was drawn in forcible
terms, from this side of the House, to the fact that as on
the United States side there was a line from Duluth to
Red River, it was utterly impossible to suppose that we
could compete by 150 miles of railway at the two ends
of the route, and half a dozen or eight portages to cross,
and 270 miles of navigation ; and that all the money
expended on it would be thrown away. The hon.
gentleman then revised his policy and again changed
it, undertaking to construct a through line of railway
from Thunder Bay direct to Red River. When, Sir,
this was done, it was assumed that this expenditure,
which would have been thrown away in any case, and
utterly useless, if a direct line of railway was made,
would be abandoned, and that no further expenditure
of money should take place on it. It appears, however,
that, while undertaking to construct as rapidly as
the location of a through line of railway would permit,
a through railway, the Government have at the same
time expended over $100,000 of public money, not on
any portion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, but on
these locks at Fort Francis, and in that direction. Now,
Sir, I have said that the report, in reference to Mr.
Foster, was a marvellous report, but it is fact rather
thrown into the shade, if anything, by the Fort Francis
locks report. What do we find ? We find that although
the Public Works Act says that the Government must
have the specifications of the engineer in all works con-
structed by that Department, they had no specifica-

283

Sir Charles Tupper

tions, and that a Mr. Sutherland — who he is I know
not — of Orillia, is called in hot haste to go and take
charge of the work, and actually commence excavations
without an estimate, without a plan, without engineer-
ing, or anything else. A more astounding series of
statements, except for gentlemen who are conversant
with these papers, which have recently been brought
down, could scarcely be presented to the House, than
these papers which are before us at present. Why, Sir,
they show that there were no tenders. The law says
that the Government must have tenders. The vote is
for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Every dollar ex-
pended is expended under that Act, or under no Act at
all. If they have expended it under the Canadian
Pacific Railway Act, then, as my right hon. friend has
stated, they are acting contrary to law, for they did it
without tender ; and if it was expended under the Public
Works Act, then it was contrary to law, because they
have no vote for it and no authority. Sir, it will be
seen by the Public Works Act that, in that case, they
would be violating the Act. It says : —

" Nothing in this Act shall give authority to the
Minister to cause expenditure not previously sanctioned
by Parliament, except for such repairs and alterations
as the interest of the public service shall require."

Sir, in that case, whether it was expended under the
Canadian Pacific Railway Act, or under the Public
Works Act, the Government cannot proceed without
estimates, without plans, and without surveys by the
Engineer ; and you find that you have, as in the other
return, to read this book backwards, and that when
you have got to the end of the chapter, after the money
has been spent, you get an estimate, and that after
the Government has expended over $100,000, they find
that it is desirable to have an estimate, and send a

284

Appendix

gentleman up there to furnish them with one. On May
llth, 1875, Mr. Braun writes to Mr. Sutherland that :—

" Pending the arrival from Ottawa of such instruc-
tions, you will proceed with the excavations first, of the
whole of the earth work, and afterwards with such
portions of the work as must necessarily be taken out."

On July 24th Mr. Sutherland was informed : —

" Full instructions have been sent to Mr. Hazlewood
to proceed to Fort Francis and prepare a full and com-
plete design for the whole work."

On August 2nd following, Mr. Hazlewood wrote to
Mr. Braun : —

" Dear Sir, — Your communications, numbers 31,203
and 31,204 with enclosures, are to hand duly. I shall
give the canal question at Fort Francis my best atten-
tion. I have brought Mr. Mortimer down to work upon
the plans, and as soon as they are ready I shall not lose
a moment in forwarding them to Ottawa. In the mean-
time I may state that I have approved of the locations
selected by Mr. Mortimer for the canal at Fort Francis."

Mr. Mackenzie. — On May llth Mr. Braun had
written to Mr. Sutherland : —

" On reaching Fort Francis you will see Mr. Mortimer,
resident engineer, who will be at once instructed to take
soundings with a view to determining the exact points
at which it would be most desirable to construct the
canal locks at each, and you will then, as speedily as
possible ascertain the nature of the rock and the depth
of various points, so that Mr. Mortimer can make a
section."

And on July 5th — a month before the hon. gentle-
man said he had been instructed to go there — wrote : —

" According to instructions received from Mr. Hazle-
wood, I have made the necessary profile, and have laid

285

Sir Charles Tupper

out the ground for the locks on Rainy River at this
place."

Now, does the hon. gentleman mean to mix up these
dates with the view of misleading the House ?

Mr. Tupper. — I will now read from the document
brought down by the hon. the First Minister himself.
The first thing to be noticed is the extraordinary state-
ment that : —

" In the return prepared for the House in the matter
of the Fort Francis locks, there is wanting the report of
Mr. S. Hazlewood, giving an estimate of the cost of the
works. The report is mislaid, but Mr. Hazlewood has
been written to for a copy of it."

I believe among all the documents with reference to
an important public work that perhaps is the most
extraordinary statement that could be found. On
May llth, a letter was sent to Mr. Sutherland, signed
by Mr. Braun, stating : —

" When you reach Fort William you will see Mr.
Walter Oliver, and, if he has finished the work entrusted
to him, he will accompany you to assist in taking charge
of the men. Mr. James MacDonald and Mr. Oliver
will act as foremen under you, either in the woods or at
the works, as you may deem desirable."

An Hon. Member. — What Mr. Oliver is that ?

Mr. Tupper. — I don't know. This Fort Francis lock
appears to have been a happy preserve for the needy
friends of the Government, who could be shipped up
there out of the reach of anyone. Did anyone ever
hear of a resident engineer being the person to prepare
plans and to authorize the construction of a public
work ? What does the hon. First Minister take the
House for ? Does not he not suppose that we know
that a resident engineer is generally a person with

286

Appendix

merely sufficient knowledge of engineering to enable
him to carry out the instructions of his superior officers ?
Long months afterwards it was found that Mr. Mortimer's
information was all wrong, that he had not the proper
depth of the locks or anything connected with them ;
and that was the best evidence that Mr. Mortimer was
not a competent engineer. On July 24th, Mr. Sutherland
was written to as follows : —

ic These instructions necessarily include the re-
examination of the line recommended by yourself and
Mr. Mortimer, and, should Mr. Hazlewood conceive it
necessary to make any change in the location, you will
defer to his opinions, and carry on the work on the
amended line he may trace out, should he conceive that
course to be necessary."

Now, I ask, in the history of Canada was ever a
public work proceeded with in such a manner as that ?
I do not think there was. At all events it was done
in deliberate defiance of the Public Works Act, and
without any sufficient authority. Everything like law
and precedence, and everything that savours of Parlia-
mentary Government were thrown to the winds because
the hon. the First Minister decided that the work
should be commenced at once. Every person knew
that the engineer in charge should have control and
power over the work. But Mr. Hazlewood was written
to as follows : —

" As the site where Mr. Sutherland will commence
his excavation has been recommended by Mr. Mortimer
equally as by yourself^ there is fair reason to look
forward to the line selected by them being approved by
yourself."

I have never heard of such instructions given to an
engineer. It was a direct hint to him how to make up
his mind. Would it be supposed that under such

287

Sir Charles Tupper

circumstances as those the work of excavation should
have been ordered by the hon. the Minister of Public
Works on May llth ? On April 18th, 1876, nearly a
year afterwards, Mr. Braun wrote to Mr. Sutherland : —

44 Sir, — I am directed to forward you herewith a copy
of the plan of lock at Fort Francis prepared by Mr. Page
which has been approved of by the Minister. I am to
authorize you to resume work on the said lock by day
labour and to request that you will submit to the
Department an estimate of the probable monthly
expenditure for the next twelve months."

This letter was sent although the work had been
commenced nearly a year before under the direction
of the Minister of Public Works. And yet the hon.
gentleman would insinuate that I was not doing justice
to these statements because I did not read them in
detail. We at last get something practical. It is a
report signed by Mr. Baillairge, who had been instructed
on August 30th to proceed to Fort Francis. Mr.
Baillairge said, in effect, that all the money had been
thrown away, and that the work was practically use-
less unless a great deal more money was spent upon it,
and showed that the work had proved an utter delusion.
He said : —

44 The object for which the Fort Francis Canal is being
constructed cannot be obtained unless Rainy River is
improved so as to ensure the requisite draft and the
ascent of vessels against the current in the rapid."

He goes on to speak of the mode of improvements,
and says : —

44 No definite scheme or estimate can, however, be
submitted, unless the necessary levels, soundings and
measurements are taken along the entire line of the
proposed navigation."

288

Appendix

It is thus shown that about a year after this work
was in progress an engineer of the Public Works Depart-
ment was sent up to the locality and found the Govern-
ment had not taken the first preliminary step required
to be taken before the money was expended. But he
gave on September 1st, 1876, a very remarkable state-
ment. He said : —

" Sir, — Having been instructed on the 3rd ult., by
the Hon. the Minister of Public Works to examine the
Fort Francis Canal, now under your charge, and to give
such directions as I may deem advisable, I herewith
enclose for your guidance a specification of the work
to be done according to the revised plan with which
you have lately been furnished.

" This plan was prepared from somewhat limited
information, and is based on the high and low-water
levels originally observed by the engineer who first laid
out the work ; the low-water levels have since been
found to be fourteen inches lower than represented on
the plan. I have, therefore, appended to the specifica-
tion a list of levels, showing the elevation of the main
portions of the work, so as to suit the highest and lowest
water levels observed up to the present time."

So we have in regard to this work upon which the
excavations were commenced on May llth, 1875, a
statement made by Mr. Baillairge on September 1st,
1876, that they were mistaken as to the first principles
and initial steps necessary to the very inception of the
work. Mr. Baillairge continues :• —

" As it is important to ascertain the extent and nature
of the obstructions, and the cost of removing or over-
coming the same, you are hereby requested to examine
the sections of the channels referred to, and such other
points as may appear doubtful, during the season of
lowest water, and to furnish the Department with a

u 289

Sir Charles Tupper

report thereon, together with an estimate of the probable
cost of improving the channel for the required draught
from Rainy Lake to the Lake of the Woods."

I hope I have satisfied the hon. the Minister of Public
Works, and, in reading the text of this remarkable
document, I have given the House the best evidence
that the work was undertaken without any knowledge
of the subject, and after $100,000 were expended an
engineer was sent to investigate and report on the
work, showing, in the most conclusive manner, that the
information which the hon. the Minister of Public Works
was bound to have obtained before entering upon the
undertaking was not fully obtained until one year and
a half after the work was commenced ; and, in fact,
a more reckless, illegal, unjustifiable expenditure of
public money had never been made by any person
in this country. In the report of the hon. the Minister
of Public Works on page 26, what do we find ? We find
that at this place where Fort Francis Lock is being
constructed with seven feet of water on the sills, for
forty miles there is a depth of only four feet and a half ;
yet the public money is used without plans, specifica-
tions or authority of the Chief Engineer ; or without
any recommendation under which one dollar could be
expended, and the hon. gentleman makes an expenditure
of $100,000, which, unless followed up by an expenditure
of half a million more, will not accomplish the object
proposed. But suppose the works would be completed,
what then ? Does anyone suppose that with a railway
from Duluth to Red River a single ton of freight would
be carried by that route ? As regards the transportation
of rails by this route there would be eight portages, in-
volving sixteen times loading and unloading, putting
the rails into wagons and taking them out again ;
and the most insane Minister of Public Works would
not undertake to transport one ton of heavy freight

290

Appendix

of any description by any such line. Yet, the hon.
gentleman adhered to the policy he had presented
before he had undertaken to construct a direct line
from Thunder Bay to Red River, and went on with this
expenditure. But the amount was not charged to
current expenditure, as, under the late Government,
all expenditures in connection with the Dawson route
were charged. I draw the attention of the hon. the
Minister of Finance to the fact that, when he is com-
paring the expenditure of 1873-4 and subsequent years,
all such expenditures under the late Government were
charged to current revenue, and not chargeable to capital
under this Government. All these expenditures are
made in connection with the Canadian Pacific Railway,
and thus hundreds of thousands of dollars were ex-
pended without having any more connection with
the railway than if it was spent in Nova Scotia or
New Brunswick. I am happy to say that the duty
I have laid upon myself is drawing to a close, I think
I have given to the House sufficient reason in relation
to the policy of the Government, and the mode in
which they have carried out that policy, for passing
a moderate censure, the moderate censure that I pro-
pose— that this House cannot approve of the policy
of the Government. We cannot approve of it, because
Ministers have violated their principles and their
pledges ; because the men who declared to the Canadian
public that the railway would never be built by any
other mode than by a private company, aided by a grant
of land and money, had, so soon as they obtained power,
trampled the principles propounded and the pledges
given to the people under their feet and shown that
what they meant was that no other Government should,
in this way, handle the public money and be able to
deal with the public requirements but themselves.
The moment they were entrusted with power, in

291

Sir Charles Tupper

consequence, I suppose, of their high purity and in-
dependence of character, they thought it would be
safe to change the whole policy, and to take the work
into their own hands, although it would involve an
enormous direct expenditure by the Government.
I ask the support of the House to the amendment
because the Government have violated their pledges
given to the people, that if power was conceded to
them it would never be abused, and the great cardinal
principle of their policy would be that not one dollar
would be expended without a direct vote of Parliament.
I have shown that millions have been expended, I may
say millions wasted, without having a vote of Parlia-
ment for a single dollar. I am justified in asking the
House to pass this censure upon the Government,
because their proceedings have been unconstitutional
and illegal, and they have violated the law under which
they are constructing this work, with respect to the
declaration that public tenders must be invited, and the
work performed by contract. They have expended
public moneys without tenders. I have shown that
they have, in an unconstitutional manner, because
without any vote of Parliament, they have undertaken
to pledge the good faith of Canada to the payment
of millions, and by a reckless purchase have saddled
the country with a dead loss of over a million and a
half, involving an annual charge upon our Treasury
of $75,000 for ever. I have shown that, in addition to
their vacillating policy, — a policy changing from hour
to hour, a policy of a mixed route one day and an all-
rail route the next, of carrying on the works by a private
company one day and by the Government the next, and
now they propose to revert to the former when they
have destroyed all chance of success. I have shown
that even in dealing with the small matter of the right
of way in an unsettled and unpeopled district at

292

Appendix

Kaministiquia, the payment was such that if applied
to the payment of the right of way for the Inter-
colonial, which passed in large sections through a
settled country, many sections passing through most
valuable lands, the amount would have been more
than the whole cost of the Intercolonial by some-
thing more than three millions of dollars. I have shown
you that their policy was a breach of faith, because
they have pledged themselves to British Columbia ;
they have pledged themselves to the Imperial Govern-
ment, to construct a railway on Vancouver Island, and
to construct a railway from the shores of the Pacific to
the shores of Lake Superior by 1890, without any
qualification or restriction whatever, both of which
they have abandoned. I have shown you that their
expenditure during the past year was in contravention
of the decision of the House, as arrived at by the
resolution of the hon. member for West Middlesex (Mr.
Ross), because the hon. the First Minister knows that
he cannot say that it is not increasing the taxation of
the country. With the $3,000,000 of additional taxa-
tion, levied when they first obtained power, gone, with
an admitted deficit of $2,000,000 during the past year,
with the demand upon the House this Session for
$500,000 more to meet the ordinary expenditure of the
country, I defy the hon. gentleman to say that every
dollar he expends on the Canadian Pacific Railway does
not increase the existing rate of taxation. And, if it
does, I say the resolution prepared, as I believe it was,
by the Government, and put into the hands of the hon.
member for West Middlesex, and sustained, as it was,
by them, was a complete breach of faith of the solemn,
binding obligation the Government had made with
British Columbia, and with the Imperial Government,
that they would proceed with and construct the road
within the time stated. The hon. the First Minister

293

Sir Charles Tupper

stated, in his manifesto to the country, in reference to
the connection of immigration to this work : —

'4 We shall endeavour to make these great works
auxiliary to the promotion of immigration on an ex-
tended scale, and to the settlement and development of
these rich and fertile territories on which our hopes for
the future of Canada are so largely fixed."

Is there a man in Canada who did not concur in the
sentiment propounded there ? Is there a man in
Canada, who knows anything of the great and fertile
country spoken of, who does not think that the future
hopes of Canada are, to a large extent, necessarily fixed
on that country ? And yet, what has been the record
of the hon. gentleman ? Dealing with the public money
with unstinted hand — for Parliament has been ready
to place anything demanded in the hon. gentleman's
hands — what has been done ? Instead of making his
Canadian Pacific Railway policy accomplish what every
person believes might be accomplished in connection
with the settlement of that country — everyone knows
that one of the prime considerations in connection with
this great work was that it would afford the means
of giving valuable, remunerative employment to the
immigrants brought into the country to people that
magnificent territory — yet the Government have done
absolutely nothing towards that end. Was there
ever a Government in the position this Government
was in, with this matter in their hands, with a support
in Parliament such as few Governments have ever
possessed, and with the opportunity of advancing
the interests of the country in that way without
measure and without bounds. And yet, what is the
record to-day ? The record of votes and proceedings
of yesterday shows that the number of immigrants
brought to this country in 1873, when not a mile of

294

Appendix

this road was under contract, was three times as great
as during the past year ; that while the cost per head
of bringing immigrants to the country has been enor-
mously increased, we stand in the position, that instead
of the construction of this great work bringing a
tremendous immigration and advancing the interests
of Canada in the way the hon. the First Minister held
out to the country when he made his address to the
people, those expectations have utterly failed ; and
that notwithstanding all this expenditure in connection
with the work, it has not been attended by increased
influx of immigrants, but, on the contrary, a large and
rapid decline has taken place. I have referred already
to the violation of the law and the utter disregard of
Parliamentary authority and the enormous payments of
money connected with the Georgian Bay branch and
the Canada Central Railroad, in violation of the one and
contempt of the, other. The whole policy of the Govern-
ment, as propounded by the hon. gentleman, has been
utterly delusive, and to-day we find ourselves without
any advance, without anything accomplished, but minus
a large sum of money which has been paid to parties
who, contrary to the law, were entrusted to carry out
contracts. I am sorry that I have been obliged to
trespass on the indulgence of the House so long, but I
think I have adduced sufficient to support the motion
which I now have the honour to move. I have en-
deavoured, and I think the hon. the First Minister will
agree with me, in the statement to avoid every question
that could raise an unpleasant topic of discussion
between the occupants of the Treasury benches and
ourselves. Notwithstanding the great temptation that
was presented as I proceeded in this discussion, I have
carefully endeavoured to give a simple statement of
facts presented by the Government themselves, as
brought down in public documents ; and if I have not

295

Sir Charles Tupper

established successfully that the Government have
failed in their duty to the country, and that the course
they have pursued on this great question has been
detrimental to the interests of the country, then I have
no grounds on which to ask for the support of this
House. But I feel that the case that has been presented
is one which entitles me confidently to ask your support,
and if I do not obtain it from this House there is an
equally independent tribunal in this country to which I
can confidently look for the affirmation of this motion
which I have now the honour to offer.

Thanking the House for their indulgence at this late
period of the Session which they have kindly given on
the ground of the vast importance of the subject, and
deeply regretting my own physical inability under the
circumstances in which I was compelled to address the
House, to deal with the question as vigorously as the
interests of the country demand, I beg leave to offer
the following resolution : —

" That Mr. Speaker do not now leave the Chair, but
that it be Resolved, That this House cannot approve of
the course pursued by this Government with respect to
the Canadian Pacific Railway."

296

INDEX

Abbott, Harry, 113
Abbott, Sir John, 107, 144, 153
Aberdeen, Lord, Governor-Gen-
eral, 158

Adams, Harris L., 21
Allan, Sir Hugh, 90, 92, 122
Amherst, 10, 12, 25
Ancestors of Sir C. Tupper, 9
Angell, Professor, 191
Angers, Hon. A. R., 163
Anti-Confederation, 33-5
Appendix, 199
Arbitration fishery, 190
Archibald, Hon. A. G., 29, 32,

37, 45

Atlantic service, 157
Australasian provinces, 183

Bayard, Hon. Mr., 190 et seq.

Beach, Hon. Sir Michael Hicks,
170, 181, 186

Behring Sea arbitration, 148

Belgian and German treaties,
178

Biographical sketch of Sir
Charles Tupper, 8 et seq.

Blake, Edward, 79, 100; de-
nounces railway policy of the
Government, 106-7 ; refuses
to serve on Commission, 124 ;
Against reciprocity, 150

Bond, Hon. Mr., 166
Borden, Hon. R. L., 155, 165
Bowell, Hon. Sir Mackenzie,

79, 153, 157, 161-2
Boyd, John, 25
Bright, John, 34, 46, 47
British Columbia, 82 et seq.
Brown, Hon. George, 27, 29 ;

appreciation of, 36, 39, 40
Buckingham, Duke of, 48, 189
Bunster, Mr., M.P., 110
Burpee, Isaac, 134
Butter, Capt., explorer, 89

Cambie, H. J., 90

Cameron, Capt., 55, 56, 57, 58

Cameron, Mrs., 55, 56, 57, 58

Carlton Club, remark by Sir C.
Tupper, 124

Carnarvon, Lord, 32, 34, 35, 48,
94

Caron, Sir Adolphe, 151

Carrall, Dr., 87

Cartier, Sir George E., 8, 27, 32,
appreciation of, 36 ; and
first Dominion Government,
38, 48, 54 ; and debate on
Kiel, 79 ; defeat and death,
91

Cartwright, Sir Richard, 50, 79,
136, 138

297

Sir Charles Tupper

Cauchon, Hon. Mr., 134

Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. Joseph,
145, 157, 160, 181, 182 ; and
fisheries treaty, 189 et seq.

Chapais, Hon. Mr., 40

Chapleau, Sir J. A., 163

Charlottetown Conference, 26

Cheadle, Dr., explorer, 89

Chesson, Mr., 35

Church, Mr., of Lunenburg, 91

Clark, Judge, 117

Clarke, Col. and Mrs., 108

Coal, 168

Colmer, secretary to Sir C.
Tupper, 22

Confederation, Quebec Con-
ference, 28 ; London Con-
ference, 31, 32 ; first Federal
Government, 32 et seq.

Country doctor, life of, 13

C.P.R. syndicate, 104

Cranston, British minister at
Washington, 19

Crow's Nest Pass, 93

Dennis, Col., 59

Dickey, Hon. R. B., 29

Disraeli, B., 36

Dominion Government, first, 37

Douglas, Sir James, 83

Dufferin, Marquis of, 81, 95,

125-6, 187

Dunsmuir, Hon. R., 110
Durham, Lord, 19

Edgar, Hon. J. D., 94
Education in Manitoba, 161
Education in Nova Scotia, 31
Empire confederation, 170

Federating the Empire, 170
Fielding, Hon. W. S., 145, 155
Fisher, Hon. Chas., 32
Fisheries treaty, 189
Fitzmaurice, Lord, 187
Fleming, Sir Sandford, 89, 107,

113

Forster, Rt. Hon. W. E., 171
Fort Garry, trip to, 58 et seq.
Fraser, Graham, 155, 156
Fraser, Simon, explorer, 89

Gait, Hon. Alex. T., 27, 32, 38,

44, 49, 50, 186
Goschen, Lord, 156-7
Grant, Principal, 90

Hannington, C. F., 90

Harkin, William A., his char-
acteristics, ix ; biographical
details, xii

Helmcken, Dr. J. S., 87

Henry, Hon. W. A., 29, 32

Higgins, D. W., 87

Hill, G. G., 104, 114

Hincks, Sir Francis, 49, 79

Holt, H. S., 113

Holt, T. G., 113

Howe, Hon. Joseph, Sir C.
Tupper's first contest with,
16, 17 ; and proscription of
Roman Catholics, 19 ; mis-
sion to New York for Crimean
volunteers, 19 ; motion on
Confederation (1861), 21 ;
and Charlottetown Confer-
ence, 26 ; his change of
opinion, 30 ; joins delega-
tion to London to oppose

298

Index

union, 33 ; writes a pam-
phlet, ibid. ; threatens to
defeat Confederation, 41 ;
meets Sir C. Tupper in
London, 44 ; visits Duke of
Buckingham, 48 ; becomes a
member of Sir John A.
Macdonald's administration,
49 ; his death, 52
Rowland, Hon. W. P., 32, 37,

39

Hudson's Bay Company, 54
Huntington, Hon. L. S., 91,
122

Imperial federation, 170
Iron industry, 154

Jersey, Earl of, 180
Johnson, Hon. J. M., 32
Johnstone, Hon. W. G., 18
Jones, Hon. A. G., 138

Keefer, Mr., eminent engineer,

117

Kennedy, Mr., and C.P.R. Syn-
dicate, 104

Kennedy, Sir C. M., 187, 188
Kenny, Sir Edward, 40, 46
Kicking Horse Pass, 93

Laird, Hon. David, 134
Langevin, Hon. Hector L., 27,

32, 40, 79, 147, 160, 161
Lansdowne, Marquis of, 191
Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 24, 100,
158, 161, 163, 164; appre-
ciation of, 165, 180, 181
Lemay, 70, 74

London Conference on Con-
federation, 31

Lome, Marquis of, 114, 157
Lowther, Rt. Hon. James, 180
Lytton, Bulwer, 36

Macdonald, Sir John A., 3 ;
at the Quebec Conference,
27 ; and legislative union,
29 ; chairman of London
Conference on Confederation,
32 ; forms first federal Gov-
ernment, 37 et seq. ; es-
tranged from Sir R. Cart-
wright, 50 ; asks Sir C.
Tupper to interview Riel, 56;
and debate on Riel, 79 ;
and the inclusion of B.C.,
82-4 ; and the " Pacific
Scandal," 92 ; appoints Sir
C. Tupper Minister of Rail-
ways, 97 ; his railway policy,
100 ; appoints a Royal Com-
mission re " Pacific Slander,"
117 ; sustained in elections
(1872), 121; defeat in Par-
liament, 127 ; returns to
power, 145 ; offers Sir C.
Tupper the leadership in
succession, 147 ; his last cam-
paign, 149 ; his death, 151,
170

Macdougall, Hon. Wm., 27, 32,
39, 50, 54, 56, 61, 79

Macdougall, Sister, 68, 73

Macfarlane, A., 16

Maclntyre, Duncan, 103, 104

Mackenzie, Hon. Alexander,
79, 90, 92, 93, 100, 131, 139

299

Sir Charles Tupper

Mackenzie, Sir William, 113
Macoun, Prof., 89
Macpherson, Sir David, 122
Manitoba Schools, 161
Mann, Sir Donald D., 113
Marpole, 113

Masson, Hon. Mr., 51, 77, 79
Miall, expert accountant, 115
Milton, Lord, explorer, 89
Mitchell, Hon. Peter, 32 ; ap-
preciation of, 37, 40
Moberley, Walter, 89
Monck, Lord, 39
Morier, Sir Robert, 187
Morse, Frances, 25
Morse, Silas, 25
Moss, Judge, 163
Mountstephen, Lord, 102, 104,

116, 146

Mowat, Hon. Oliver, 29
Musgrave, Anthony, and Con-
federation, 83, 87
McCarthy, Dalton, 163
McCarthy, Justin, 35
McCully, Jonathan, 29, 32
McGee, Hon. D'Arcy, 27, 28 ;

appreciation of, 37, 38, 39
McLelan, Hon. A. W., head of

Finance Department, 116
McNeill, Alexander, M.P., 172
McTavish, Governor of Hud-
son's Bay Co., 57

" National Policy," 120
New Brunswick, 31, 82
Newfoundland and Canada,

166
Newfoundland and Quebec

Conference, 28

" Nineteenth Century," article
by Sir C. Tupper, 182

North- West Territories, 54

Norton, Lord, 114

Onderdonk, Andrew, con-
tractor, 98

" Pacific Scandal," 120 et seq.
Parker, Hon. Dr., 108
Patterson, Hon. Wm., 155
Pen-sketch of Sir C. Tupper,

3,5
Pope, John Henry, 102, 112,

114, 146
Port Moody, 99
Preferential trade, 172
Putnam, Judge, 191

Quebec Conference on Con-
federation, 28

Raymur, Capt., 109

Reinach, Baron, 104, 105

" Reminiscences," origin of

publication, v
Revelstoke, Lord, head of

Barings and Glyn, 116
Richot, Father, 65, 70, 71, 73
Riel, Louis, 57, 70, 73, 147
Riel, Sister, 68, 80
Ritchie, Hon. J. W., 32, 182
Robertson, Andrew, 108, 110
Robinson, John Beverley, 133
Robson, Hon. John, 87
Roman Catholics, attitude to-
wards, 18-19
Rose, Sir John, 49, 104, 116-17,

157
Rosebery, Lord, 173, 175

300

Index

Ross, James, 113
Roulette, Mr., U.S. Customs
Officer, 65

Salaberry, Col. de, 57, 74
Salisbury, Lord, 177
Saunders, Rev. Dr., author of

" Three Premiers of Nova

Scotia," 9

Schreiber, Collingwood, 108
Schultz, Dr., 73
Seelye, H. E., 87
Seward, Hon. W. H., U.S.

Secretary of State, 129
Seymour, Governor, 83, 86
Shaughnessy, Sir Thos., 113;

appreciation of, ibid.
Smith, Donald A. (Lord Strath-

cona), 60, 63, 65, 68, 104;

drives last spike in C.P.R.

(1885), 108, 162
Smith, Sir Albert, 134
South African War, 165
Speech, Dr. Tupper's first, 15,

16 ; five hours' ditto, 199

et seq.

Stanley, Rt. Hon. Col., 189
Steven, George (Lord Mount-
Stephen), 102, 104, 116, 146
Strathcona, Lord. See Donald

A. Smith.

Tarte, J. Israel, M.P., 151 ; and
Langevin charges, 152, 163

Telegram, " Please send me
another $10,000," 122

Thibeault, Grand Vicar, 57, 74

Thompson, Sir John, 153, 154,
161

Tilley, Hon. S. L., 31, 32 ; ap-
preciation of, 37, 135, 170

Tingley, Steve, 111

" Toronto Globe," 36, 117

Trutch, Sir Joseph, 87

Tupper, Sir C., Bt., stay
in Vancouver ; ninety-one
years old ; characteristics
and pen-portrait, 5 ; birth
and ancestry, 8 ; education,
10 ; surroundings of his
youth, 11 ; course at Edin-
burgh, 12 ; begins medical
practice, 12 et seq. ; prepara-
tion for Parliament, 14 ;
begins politics, 16 ; first
political speech, ibid. ; ac-
cepts party nomination, 17 ;
antagonism of Howe, 'ibid. ;
declines premiership of N.S.,
18 ; foreshadows Confedera-
tion, 20 ; initiates B.N.A.
Act, 21 ; as Canadian High
Commissioner, 22 et seq. ;
leaves Canada, 1913, 25 ;
marriage, ibid. ; Premier of
N.S., 26 ; attends confer-
ence at Charlottetown, 26 ;
attends Quebec Conference
on Confederation, 28 ; enacts
educational measures, 31 ;
proposes London Conference,
31 ; attends same, 32 et seq. ;
replies to Howe, 33 et seq. ;
assists in forming first Do-
minion Government, 37 et
seq. ; public debate with
Howe, 41 ; waits upon
Queen Victoria, 48 ; meets

301

Sir Charles Tupper

Howe in London, 44 ; inter-
view with John Bright, 46 ;
visits Duke of Buckingham,
48 ; becomes President of
Council at Ottawa, 51 ; un-
dertakes trip to Fort Garry,
53 et seq. ; hardships of his
journey, 59 et seq. ; inter-
views Kiel and his council,
70 et seq. ; further hardships,
74 et seq. ; takes prominent
part in discussion of Kiel
rebellion, 76 ; takes port-
folio of Inland Revenue, 81 ;
becomes Minister of Railways
and Canals, 97 ; reports on
transcontinental railway, 98;
makes railway proposals, 101;
financial mission to London,
102 et seq. ; controverts ad-
verse criticisms, 106 ; makes
official trip to British Colum-
bia (1881), 108 ; inspects
line in middle West, 111 ;
goes to England as High
Commissioner (1883), 112;
returns on emergency to
Canada, 114 et seq. ; repels
charges by " Toronto Globe,"
117 ; and " Pacific Scandal,"
120 ; and Marquis of Duf-
ferin, 125 ; in elections of
1874, 130 ; resumes medical
practice, 131 ; amusing en-
counter with Mr. Mackenzie,
132 ; campaign of the
seventies, 133-4 ; his five
hours' speech, 135 ; sup-
ports " National Policy,"

136 et seq. ; his iron and steel
policy, 144 ; and campaign
of 1887, 145 ; declines leader-
ship, 147 ; and Sir Charles
Hibbert Tupper 148 ; re-
turns to England, 151 ; at-
tends congress in Vienna,
158 ; leads in trans-Pacific
service, 156 ; takes up fast
Atlantic service, 157 ; and
Conservative defeat, 159 ;
declines leadership of party
(1895), 161 ; becomes Pre-
mier of Canada, 162 et seq. ;
attitude towards Newfound-
land, 166 ; and Empire con-
solidation, 170 ; discusses
Imperial Federation, 171 et
seq. ; his letter to the Colonial
Secretary, 178 et seq. ; writes
in the "Nineteenth Century,"
182 et seq. ; his part in
the fisheries treaty with the
U.S. A., 189; visits Mr. Bayard,
190 ; fellow-plenipotentiary
with Mr. Joseph Chamber-
lain, 191 ; receives honour
of a baronetcy from Queen
Victoria, 195 ; his speech on
fisheries treaty in the House
of Commons, 196-8
Tupper, Sir Charles Hibbert,
3 ; visits Sault Ste. Marie,
145 ; enters public life, 148 ;
Minister of Marine, 148 ;
knighthood, 148 ; Behring
Sea arbitration, 148 ; sug-
gested as High Commissioner,
162 ; resigns after twenty-

302

Index

two years' service, 165 ;
complimented by Edward
Blake, 149

Tyler, Sir H., Pres. G.T.R.,
103, 104

Unionists and food taxes, 167
United States and reciprocity,
143

Vancouver city, 1, 109
Van Home, Sir W. C., 112
Veterinarian, Sir C. Tupper as,
22 et seq.

Victoria, Queen, 43

Vincent, Col. Sir Howard, 180

West, Sir Lionel Sackville,

191
White, Hon. Mr., Minister of

Finance, 119
White, T. H., 90, 113
Whitney, H. M., 155, 156
Wilmot, Hon. R. D., 32
Wolfe, Thos. Andrew de, 16
Wolseley, Sir Garnet, 80

Yellowhead Pass, 94

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